ABSTRACT
One of the taken-for-granted frameworks of contemporary political theory and practice is that states provide security for their citizens. Going back to Max Weber's classical definition of states as holding the legitimate monopoly over the means of violence within a given territory, states have been seen as the protectors of the people who reside within their territorial boundaries. More recently, and in line with this definition, there has been serious concern expressed about weak or failing states contributing to foundational issues of human insecurity. Thus, regular calls go out for the necessity of state building support for weak states (Fukuyama 2004). The other side of this process, one less often directly discussed, is that strong states are part of the problem. Strong states contribute to foundational issues of human insecurity through wars of ‘humanitarian’ or pre-emptive intervention, support for corrupt regimes, hardline negotiation over resources and insufficient action on existential issues such as climate change.
