Colgate President Jeffrey Herbst is the co-author of an article on ForeignPolicy.com that explores the idea of “fault lines” within nations that can lead to mass violence.
The article is titled “The Fault Lines of Failed States: Can social science determine what makes one state fail and another succeed?”
The piece suggests that while every country and societal division is unique, there are three critical issues that can determine the prospects for conflicts within a nation: governance, democratization, and globalization.
Herbst and coauthor Greg Mills, director of the Johannesburg-based Brenthurst Foundation, explore these issues in an attempt to answer why some countries can manage societal divisions while others are plunged into violence by these same kinds of fault lines.
Understanding why this happens is critical because in today’s world it is an internal conflict, rather than a war between states, that is the primary way in which people kill each other in large numbers.
The authors, who are longtime collaborators, took part in a yearlong project with other experts that examined the nature of conflict and the role that these fault lines play.
The result of the research is a book, edited by Herbst, Mills, and Terence McNamee, called On the Fault Line: Managing Tensions and Divisions Within Societies.
On the Fault Line, which is being called an essential guide to understanding a phenomenon that all countries must grapple with in the 21st century, is due out in January.