Notes from the Failed States Index

Every year Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace evaluate most of the countries of the world and rank them according to their likelihood of failing. This year's results are in. Some items that interested me:

• States are ranked from critical to most stable. Surprisingly, the U.S. was considered stable, but Canada was considered most stable. If I understand the methodology, this was due to our problems housing Katrina victims and our problems with the rights of the detainees and immigrants. Our ranking is getting better as it has gone down (which is good) by a couple of points in two years.
• Four of the most vulnerable five states are in sub-Saharan Africa as are seven of the ten most vulnerable.
• The five most vulnerable states are Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad and Iraq.
• UN peacekeeping missions may be doing good even though they are usually understaffed. Three countries that have improved - Ivory Coast, Liberia and Haiti - host UN peacekeepers.
• Israel is now considered the 60th most vulnerable state largely because of its problems in the West Bank. But the income disparity between Israelis and Arabs also figures into the rating.