Diagnosis, intervention, and cure: the illness narrative in the discourse of the failed state.

Failed-states discourse rests on an illness narrative. As the failing state battles against invasion by the terrorism "virus," the United States serves as physician, diagnosing, treating, and sometimes "curing" the patient. The well state exists in a dominant power relationship vis-a-vis the sick state and the sick state has no voice in decision making regarding its future. Just as sick people have less autonomy than those who are well, sick states have less sovereignty than healthy ones. An uncooperative patient may be deemed incompetent and treated without his consent. Constructivist and feminist analyses of the medical process can shed light on and help in our creation of a revisionist/feminist analysis of the failed-state paradigm. KEYWORDS: medical, narrative, failed states, intervention

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When a virus attacks and infects a vulnerable living cell, it pours its own DNA and/or RNA inside. Once inside, the hereditary material begins a virtual coup d'etat. It attaches itself to the cell's existing DNA and sets up a new command system. ... One cell can be used to create thousands of new, mature viruses. The fastest virus only needs 24 minutes to explode a cell and release new virus particles. Cells are damaged and destroyed with each new birth, and chaos is all that is left in the wake.

--"Virus Basics," 2008 (1)

The world's weakest states aren't just a danger to themselves. They can threaten the progress and stability of countries half a world away.

--The Failed States Index, 2007 (2)

In the field of international relations, it has become commonplace to define states as either failed states or rogue states. "The List of Failed States," published annually since 2004 by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, has become a significant tool in the making and carrying out of public policy and is frequently referred to in the making of decisions by the US State Department and USAID as to how aid is allocated. In the academy, failed-state discourse has likewise achieved widespread intellectual currency. The concept is widely noted in a number of undergraduate textbooks, and a search of the EBSCO academic database brings up more than three hundred articles dealing with the notion of a failed state.