Aiding Weak States For Global Security.

The other idea that appeals to Arab advocates of real democracy also comes from the US. the Washington-based Centre for Global Development (CGD) says in a report that weak states lacking the capacity to confront terrorists or criminal gangs should be seen as a big threat to global security and given financial and other aid. It calls on the Bush administration to incorporate development strategies for these states into US national security strategy. It also argues for the creation of a cabinet level development agency and a new directorate within the National Security Council which would address the security impact of such states.

Concerns that weak states will continue to be a source of insecurity have intensified since the Bush administration shifted its focus towards the war in Iraq despite continuing threat from terrorists based in Afghanistan. Nancy Birdsall, CGD president, says such states, including OPEC members Indonesia and Nigeria, "find themselves weakened to the point where their instability threatens to derail political and economic progress and, in some cases, they have become attractive to the entities... who would wish to see harm visited on the US and other nations of the developed world".

The report argues that US development policy "was created for a world in which development policy was a low-level challenge". It says development aid was "not in and of itself a strategic imperative" for US security or economic interests. "As a result, in this new environment the US is ill-equipped for rapid action to recognize state weakness or failure, respond to its immediate consequences, and prioritize and finance long-term interventions necessary to help and prevent it". Despite recruits to terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda being as likely to come from prosperous backgrounds as from poor communities, a concern among security officials and military planners is that weak states have been used for meetings and as training grounds, as well as being sources of weapons. The CGD, which includes several former senior officials from the Clinton administration, acknowledges the Bush administration's recognition in the 2002 National Security Strategy of the security implications of state collapse.