Will the state wither away?

Human history is replete with examples of ruling classes that went on the destructive course and are not traceable now in the graveyard of history.

The discussion on failing states in the developing world is not something new. However, the ongoing passionate debate on whether Pakistan is a "failed state" goes back to an article in the February 1994 issue of The Atlantic Monthly by Robert B. Kaplan. Building up on the work of environmentalists, sociologists and deriving material from his own first-hand experience in Africa and Asia, Mr Kaplan suggested at the withering away of many states in the twenty-first century. While this debate was being carried on in academic circles, rumours surfaced that Robert Oakley, ex-ambassador to Pakistan, was publishing a book declaring Pakistan a failed state. Mr Oakley has denied the existence of such plans, but many Western intellectuals are convinced that Pakistan has failed or, at the very least, is a failing state. Very recently, Richard Haase, director of foreign policy issues at the Brooking Institution, and Gideon Rose, a national security fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, also hinted at the possibility of a failure of the Pakistani state.

While they did not address the matter directly in their report, which was on US relations with India and Pakistan, the writers called on Washington DC to reinstate economic and other links with Pakistan. This was because "Pakistan´s political system is in dire shape; the country has the potential to become a failed state. That would be a humanitarian nightmare—and a threat to the regional, even global, peace. The United States needs to try to head off such a tragic outcome."