In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

New Asia Foundation trustee Clare Lockhart, author of the acclaimed book, Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World and co-founder (with Dr. Ashraf Ghani) of the Institute for State Effectiveness (ISE), spoke with In Asia editor Alma Freeman on state effectiveness, Afghanistan’s unsung progress, engaging youth for change, and why we are living on the cusp of a third industrial revolution.

A Foreign Affairs article on the 2012 Failed States Index claims that, “most countries that fall apart … do so not with a bang but with a whimper.” What are your thoughts on this statement?

There are examples of seemingly gradual deterioration: where a vicious cycle of state weakness generates a spiral of decline, with deepening corruption and reducing public service, leading to an increasing loss of trust from the population. We’ve seen this in countries including Haiti, Somalia, Liberia, and Zimbabwe.

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Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived at Nicolau Lobato Airport in Timor-Leste. The plane sailed in low over pristine reefs with the U.S. flag on the tail of plane and lettered in white then neatly across the powdered blue body – “The United States of America.”

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Nearly 19 years after the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) at the 26th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting in Singapore in July 1993, the ARF just embarked on its first concrete elections mission, to observe the July 7 parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste.

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On the heels of Timor-Leste’s decade of independence and presidential and parliamentary elections, a new paper examines the nation’s development progress, national security, the significance of the 2012 elections and implications for the country and its role in Southeast Asia. The paper was published by the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) Studies in [...]

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On Saturday, July 7, Timor-Leste’s parliamentary elections took place in a peaceful political environment. The provisional results from the State Technical Body for Administration of the Elections show only four of the 21 political parties on the ballot are going to go through to parliament.

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Timor-Leste marked 10 years of independence over the past weekend, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon commending Asia’s newest nation for its “impressive advances,” and congratulating the new President, Taur Matan Ruak, on his inauguration.

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Over the years, international development assistance in Asia, as in other parts of the world, has included a focus on law and justice as a means for addressing a range of development goals, including poverty reduction, economic growth, and the advancement of human rights. A variety of rationales have been used to try to explain how law and justice interventions contribute to these broader development objectives, including asserted links to peace and stability, state legitimacy, and citizen empowerment. Most recently, the World Development Report 2011 highlighted the role of justice in breaking the cycles of violence, conflict, and fragility that continue to undermine our collective development efforts.

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With presidential elections set for March 17, followed by parliamentary elections in June, Timor-Leste is now in full political campaign mode. Some prominent figures in the country will compete for the post in Saturday’s presidential election, including incumbent president Jose Ramos Horta; the just-resigned commander of the armed forces, Taur Matan Ruak; Vice Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres; the sitting president of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama; and Lu Olo, the president of the main opposition party FRETLIN.

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After 10 years of independence and as a nascent democracy, Timor-Leste still faces the dual challenge of building formal institutions from the ground up while ensuring that traditional, local institutions are integrated into the state. In a country where the overwhelming majority of governance functions that citizens rely on…

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Presidential and parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste are scheduled for March and June of this year, respectively. With only two women among the twelve candidates contending for the largely ceremonial post as president…

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