Abstract:
Failed states are important actors in the proliferation of small arms and light weapons globally. According to a Geneva-based survey on small arms (2003), over “640 million such weapons circulate globally, mostly among private hands and for illicit purposes”. Countries ravaged by violent conflict are also believed to engender regional instability because with porous borders it becomes difficult to contain humanitarian emergencies or violence within the territorial limits of a state. A spill over of instability is a natural corollary of conflict in failed states, and ends up destabilizing neighbouring countries and regions at large. As governance and political structures weaken and decay in these states, their territorial borders become permeable; thereby causing a huge outflow of refugees into neighbouring areas thereby constitute nuisance and most cases aid terrorism. Terrorism finds sanctuary in failed states as a result of their inability to quell criminal activities and provision of basic economic stability for citizens. This failure to deliver essential political goods in the form of security, education, economic stability, etc. damages the legitimacy of the state and erodes the civil bases on which mainstream political behaviour can thrive, propelling individuals into terrorism. Terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organizations for furthering their objectives. It has been practiced by right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments. An abiding characteristic is the indiscriminate use of violence against non-combatants for the purpose of gaining publicity for a group, cause, or individual. The subject matter under review is Failed State Pandemic and International terrorism: A comparative analysis of Nigeria and Afghanistan. The problem is to investigate if the natures of failed states actually promote international terrorism or not; can a failed state be reconstructed in order to curb terrorism? The methodology for data collection and analysis was qualitative data collection and qualitative descriptive data analysis. Frustration-Aggression and Modernisation theories were adopted as the theoretical framework for the research, frustration aggression theory was applied to justify Gurr’s statement that “terrorism can be justified as a means of expressing frustration with a political system” e.g. activities of the Niger Delta Militant groups in Nigeria and Taliban in Afghanistan. Modernisation theory was adopted for the rebuild of failed states because for a country to modernize, it must create political institutions that are capable of evolving innovative policies and had the capacity to absorb increased participation that characterized modern society which if overlooked leads political instability like in Nigeria today. The research findings were that there is a relationship between failed States and International Terrorism as well as that failed states can be reconstructed when reconstructed can help in curbing international terrorism.
