ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to develop a new conceptual and analytical framework for fragility analysis of human fragility. While the state is still an important actor in the policy arena, and serves a useful analytical purpose, a state-level focus can omit more important information about how development and fragility affect society and people, and how fragility differs over space and causes geographical disparities. Thus, this study attempts to develop a synthetic framework that integrates vulnerability, positive peace/antifragility, and human security to define human fragility as a “situation or place where people are insecure or vulnerable to becoming insecure.” This human fragility framework is intended to complement, rather than replace, the current state-centered frameworks by placing subnational variations in the scale of violence, the existence of marginalized and excluded groups, and levels of poverty at the center of fragility analysis. With a specific focus on Southeast Asia, a human fragility framework identifies the five main areas of fragility in the region, the CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam) countries, and the Philippines, with additional reference to the sixth, Timor-Leste.
