Privatization

New America Senior Fellows Parag Khanna, Maria Kupcu, and Michael Cohen's article, "The New Colonialists," appears alongside the Failed States Index in the current issue of Foreign Policy Magazine.

The authors suggest that in many states - not only those traditionally considered "failed" -- "a hodgepodge of international charities, aid agencies, philanthropists, and foreign advisers" are increasingly carrying out traditional government functions. Increasingly, people in developing countries depend upon internationally-financed organizations for basic services such as health care and education that their governments cannot provide.

While these groups undoubtedly address urgent development challenges, their presence begs the question of whether the states in which they operate will ever develop the capacity to provide basic services for their populations. And, if not, what does that mean for state sovereignty in the 21st century?

While the authors do not view this phenomenon as purely benign or malign, they do call for a new system of global governance that holds the new colonialists accountable to the citizens of countries in which they operate.