For a second time in a month, Dhaka has sought more time to notify the US whether it would consent to the Leahy law, which was invoked at the beginning of the new year.
Washington elites appear to think the densely populated Asian proxies, including their people, industries, and infrastructures could be sacrificed. The island of Taiwan is sure to suffer the worst of the devastation if a military clash concerning the island breaks out, and many US forward-deployed conventional forces will conceivably be sacrificed as a further tripwire to rally US public outrage. But in Machiavellian practice, the Taiwan citizenry and rank-and-file US military have only marginal value. The war’s outcome will surely be determined by the deterrence of the US’ intimidating nuclear capabilities advantage; or so the elites think.
The Global Fragility Act (GFA), passed by Congress and signed into law in 2019, requires the State Department, USAID, and other agencies to put in place for the first time a comprehensive strategy to address state fragility, violent conflict, and extremism, relying on best practices that are key to more effective and integrated U.S. policy. This report focuses on six key themes in the legislation, drawing on the expertise of leading peacebuilding and development experts to help generate practical solutions for advancing the GFA.
Introduction
Addressing state fragility and violent conflict is one of the central challenges of the modern era. Violent conflicts have risen in number, duration, and intensity since 1990, spurring the spread of violent extremism and one of the largest displacement crises in human history, causing untold human suffering. As a result, the international community has coalesced around the need for new approaches to reduce conflict’s underlying drivers and in