Failed State?
25. BANGLADESH
FSI Score: 94.4
It is perhaps a measure of progress that instability in Bangladesh so far in 2011 has been the product of a turbulent stock market. Not so long ago, the idea that international investors would come to Bangladesh -- an agricultural country once famously dubbed a "basket case" by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson -- would have seemed preposterous. But in recent years, investors have poured their money into Bangladeshi stocks. Fears that banks and other big investors might pull out triggered mass protests across the country, such as the one pictured here, several times this year.
Despite the frequent shocks, Bangladesh's macroeconomy still looks strong, and the government promised in May that it would see the best growth in decades. Bangladesh will need years of similar growth to transcend its years of stagnation: Two out of five Bangladeshis live under the poverty line. Any improvements will also be fighting the environmental clock. If sea levels rise just by 1 meter, scientists warn, 17 percent of the country could be submerged.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/postcards_from_hell_2011?page=0,25
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/20/postcards_from_hell_2011http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failedstates
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