Conventional wisdom among policymakers in both the US and Europe holds that weak and failing states are the source of the world's most pressing security threats today. However, as this book shows, our assumptions about the threats posed by failed and failing states are based on false premises.

A Council on Foreign Relations book.

Left behind : understanding state fragility -- Transnational terrorism -- Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction -- Transnational crime -- Energy insecurity -- Infectious disease.