Political Violence and the Concept of Failed State - Comparison between Iraq and Somalia

There is recently growing interest, and also the political and academic debate connected to it, in the so called failed states. The problem of state failure in some of the world regions was securitized, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the failed states began being understood as a security threat by the international community. This change in perception of the failed states reflects the concerns that such states' areas could serve as a "safe havens" of various terrorist groups. This thesis focuses on the relation between state failure and political violence. There is no question that polical violence emerges in the failed states. Its most common form is the civil war which can be both the cause or the consequence of it. But this relation is not necessarily inevitable. The goal of this thesis is to clarify the contribution of the concept of failed state to the explanation of relation between state failure and political vilence and furthermore to inspect the concept's analytical value. This relation is illutrated on two case studies, Iraq and Somalia, and on their comparison