“Under international law, a State is an entity that has a defined territory and a permanent population, under the control of its own government, and that engages in, or has the capacity to engage in, formal relations with other such entities. A State becomes failed when the third constitutive element of statehood, a government in effective control, fades away.”
OUTLINE
Chapter 2, Application of IHL by and in Failed States
Chapter 5, Situations where structures of authority have disintegrated
DOCUMENT
CASES
ICRC, Disintegration of State Structures (Part II. 2)
Case Study, Armed Conflicts in the Great Lakes Region (Part III. A. and C.)
Case Study, Armed Conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea (Parts 1 and 2)
BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESOURCES
GEISS Robin, “Failed States: Legal Aspects and Security Implications”, in German Yearbook of International Law, Vol. 47, 2004, pp. 457-501 GEISS Robin, “Armed Violence in Fragile States: Low-Intensity Conflicts, Spillover Conflicts, and Sporadic Law Enforcement Operations by Third Parties”, in IRRC, Vol. 91, no. 873, March 2009, pp. 127-142. KRITSIOTIS Dino, “International Humanitarian Law and the Disintegration of States”, in IYHR, Vol. 30, 2000, pp. 17-35 THUERER Daniel, “The ‘Failed State’ and International Law”, in IRRC, No. 836, December 1999, pp. 731-761. THUERER Daniel, “Der Wegfall effektiver Staatsgewalt: Der ‘failed State’”, in Berichte der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Völkerrecht, Vol. 34, Heidelberg, 1995, pp. 9-47 Armed Conflicts and Disintegration of States: Humanitarian Challenge: 21st Round Table on Current Problems of International Humanitarian Law, 25 September 1996, San Remo, International Institute of Humanitarian Law, 1996, 107 pp.