case study on Iraq

When considering the website Foreign Policy on the Fragile States Index, it is clear that it covers a range of important concerns related to global stability, which has been a problem around borders, nations, continents, and the whole globe. It just takes a small amount of regional volatility to spread to the global level, particularly in recent years (Foreign Policy, 2015).
The website delves into the social unrest that has afflicted many nations. The affected countries have brought the problem of instability too far that it has poured over their borders. As a result of this, people are plagued by the perpetual state of instability that pervades those nations, posing a slew of negative consequences. Around 12 years, the Fragile States Index (FSI) was created by Funds for Peace and published by Foreign Policy. This was mandated to promulgate vital information about countries basing on the economic, social, and political elements that examined how political shifts, environmental calamities, peace accords, and wars have made countries stable or crush. In this regard, the index ranks the countries on their degree of fragility (Foreign Policy, 2015).

The FSI increased due to countries becoming unstable. Syriaт civil wars commenced in 2011 became intense in 2015 in the Middle East registering high number of asylums in the region. This chaos was spreading fast to most countries in Europe making many of thems rising up in the FSI. Besides, Hungary and the Central Europe countries had intense xenophobic backlash where human’s rights were violated. These led to the increased number of migrants to Great Britain, which consequently made the latter leave the European Union. West Africa suffered the same challenge from the Boko Haram who destabilized countries such as Cameroon, Niger, and Chad. The instability caused the majority of people living as refugees (Foreign Policy, 2015).

The website further gives overall rank and scores about those countries that have constant regional instability. The defining measures of the FSI are conducted on the basis of a number of parameters that include demographic pressures, security apparatus, human flight, group grievance, refugees, and internally displaced persons (Foreign Policy, 2015).

Analysis of Iraq’s FSI

The tone of the website on the case of Iraq is hopeful, though the position of this country is 11 in the overall rank with the score of 104.7. There is a promising room for change since the indicator scores has been dropping from the year 2006 to 2011 and remained constant since then to 2015 (Ismael & Ismael, 2015).

Furthermore, the website approaches the country objectively without passing judgement based on the historical turmoil experienced over the past. Though the country is high in the FSI, the site considers Iraq from the positive side (Kaplan, 2014).

Based on what I have learnt from other sources, for instance, Google Scholar and PubMed, the website does not give an accurate portrayal of Iraq. The reality of its security atmosphere does not match the information on the website. Iraq is a polarized country in terms of its security. Most information concerning the migrants, political division among the parties and leaders, and the ultimate state of the country in terms of peace in the recent past is not adequately discussed.

References

Foreign Policy. (2015). Fragile States Index. Retrieved from http://foreignpolicy.com/fragile-states-index-2016-brexit-syria-refugee-europe-anti- migrant-boko-haram/.

Ismael, T. Y., & Ismael, J. S. (2015). Iraq in the twenty-first century: Regime change and the making of a failed state (Vol. 34). Routledge.

Kaplan, S. (2014). Identifying truly fragile states. The Washington Quarterly, 37(1), 49-63.