The Failed/Fragile States Index was created by The Fund For Peace. The FFP was Founded in 1957 and is an independent, nonpartisan, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. and Abuja, Nigeria. It works to prevent conflict and promote sustainable security globally by building relationships and trust across diverse sectors. The index is used as an early warning for a nation’s vulnerability to collapse and to call for effective policy responses. In the 2010, the FFP changed the name of the index from Failed to Fragile and also altered the the scale for how close a nation is to collapse of succeed. The map incorporates a unique feature of interactivity that allows its users to explore each country in depth in connection to its ranking.
Given that the map was designed by the Fund For Peace, it is clear the goal of this map was to raise awareness to the countries that are most in need of assistance across the world. There are, however a few issues with this map. The main one being the label of “failed states”. The main problem with this label is that it writes off certain countries as failures despite lacking much context. While they have a system they believe in that factors in many different statistics to determine their rankings, the terms “success” and “failure” are objective terms that mean different things to different people.
They have since updated their map to the title “Fragile States Index” and it is now an interactive map that gives more detail on every country and why it is ranked where it is. For example, areas like South Sudan are now singled out and spotted as a clear area that needs help, whereas the 2010 map somewhat grouped areas of Africa together. Thus, in many ways the FFP is much more successful now with their map today than in 2010.