How States Die: Membership and Survival in the International System

When states die, there are massive consequences. Somalia's death in 1991 created a safe haven for criminal non-state actors and has unsettled the Horn of Africa for decades. When the Iraqi state was dismantled in 2003, a similar set of consequences plagued the Middle East and the international system more broadly.

InHow States Die, Douglas Lemke provides an analysis of this phenomenon by reconceptualizing the definitions of the state and state death. A state exists, according to Lemke, whene...