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DRC: Fragile States - Halting the Slide Toward Failure

Making peace is often thought to be the hardest part of dealing with the world’s failing states. But while ending conflict is undoubtedly challenging, nation-building is often more difficult still. And then there are the countries that aren’t failing but aren’t succeeding, either: a so-called middle tier of “fragile states” that straddle a thin line of survival vs. returning to conflict or other social, environmental or economic distress. The Pulitzer Center’s Fragile States project, in collaboration with the Bureau for International Reporting, offers a series of stories filmed in four of the world’s most at-risk nations—nations that rarely make the headlines but that offer clear lessons for what it takes to stabilize a country emerging from trauma.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo: How can the world’slargest United Nations Peacekeeping force protect civilians when itmust partner with a national army that is almost as predatory on thelocal population as the rebels they are meant to fight against? Spend aday with UN Congo chief Alan Doss as he travels the eastern part ofthis massive country, trying to shore up a mission facing hugechallenges.

In East Timor: 10 years after it voted for independence from Indonesia, this tiny new nation struggles to build itself up from scratch. What does it take to create a functioning army and police force or write national laws when four different languages are commonly spoken? How to combat an unemployment rate of 40%, or manage a promising but perhaps overwhelming natural resources wealth?  

In Bosnia: Rising nationalism is stoking ethnic and political tensions, threatening to undermine the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the bloodshed there in 1995. What are the political, societal and economic stresses behind the instability? Could Bosnia return to violent conflict?

In Haiti: The recipient of billions of dollars in foreign aid and repeated interventions by the international community, Haiti may be on the verge at last of stability—or else at the cusp of even deeper misery. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has recently appointed President Bill Clinton as a special envoy to the nation, to help sieze what he describes as “Haiti’s big chance.”  

This project is part of the Pulitzer Gateway Fragile States, an interactive educational portal thathelps tell the stories of the dangers weak states around the world pose-- and also the international interventions that appear to be making adifference. Fragile States also includes reporting fromPulitzer projects in East Timor, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, Afghanistan, Sudan and Guinea-Bissau. Join the conversation by sharing your story about fragile states. Learn more about the Pulitzer Center's Global Gateway.

Jason Maloney

Jason Maloney is a co-founder, producer, videographer and editor with the Bureau for International Reporting (BIR) – a non-profit organization dedicated to producing and providing vital international television news programming to an American audience.  With the BIR, Maloney has reported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Russia, Georgia, India, Uganda and Cambodia ...

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Kira Kay

Kira Kay is Executive Director of the Bureau for International Reporting (BIR) – a non-profit organization dedicated to producing and providing vital international television news programming to an American audience. She was the recipient of the 2008 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award in International Journalism ... Click on name above for full bio.