Beyond the fragile state: Taking action to assist fragile actors and societies

The concept of the "fragile state" came rapidly to the fore in 2004 in the international policy debate about official development assistance (ODA). The month of January 2005 saw not only an important international conference on the topic, held in London, but also the simultaneous publication of two policy papers, one by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the other by the United Kingdom‘s Department for International Development (DFID). Although the definition of the concept remains ambiguous, there is now a clear trend towards assistance to "fragile" states, particularly among the OECD countries. (...)