![Soldiers look at the destroyed houses amid the wreckage of a car bombing in Somalia, one of the world's most fragile states, Mogadishu, May 17, 2017 (AP photo by Farah Abdi Warsameh).](https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/l_somalia_bombing_05232017.jpg?w=519&h=259&crop=1)
The annual Fragile States Index was released last week, and no one will be surprised by the presence of South Sudan and Somalia, which remain the most fragile states in the world. By contrast, the indicators that middle powers, and even the United States and the United Kingdom, show some troubling signs of governance weakness might raise some eyebrows. Diplomats, military officials and development economists have yet to crack the code on what to do about weak and failing states. State fragility is a chronic reality of international politics, and the responses to it have only rarely produced success stories. […]