On the relationship between failed states and terrorism

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the concept of "failed states" quickly gained prominence in international security literature, particularly under the influence of the United States. The 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy asserted that failed states posed a greater threat than traditional enemy states, reinforcing the claim that such states were the primary source of the global spread of terrorism. This discourse became a central pillar of the U.S. “War on Terror” doctrine. President Bush and his administration reinforced this narrative by highlighting Afghanistan as a prime example of the link between state failure and terrorism, and later expanded the strategy by invoking claims about Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. The hypothesis that “failed states breed terrorists” was widely accepted at the time and rarely questioned. However, this study argues that while the causal relationship is not absolute, failed states do create a conducive environment for terrorism to flourish. By examining different perspectives in the literature, the paper opens a critical discussion on the limits of this assumption.