Image: World Bank President Dr Jim Yong Kim (left) and other officials during a October 2014 meeting with the g7+ states.
The SIPRI Update for November 2014 is out now—read it online, or subscribe to receive the SIPRI Update in your inbox each month.
In this issue we present an essay by Gary Milante and Suyoun Jang on reframing the language of development in difficult places. They write:
In 2014, at the inaugural Stockholm Forum on Security and Development, East Timorese Finance Minister Emilia Pires reflected on the word ‘fragile’, noting that many beautiful things, like crystal, are fragile, and that the term should be reclaimed by fragile states that require special care but are precious in their own way. While it is important for fragile and conflict-affected states to construct their own development paths, it is also time for the international community to move beyond the word ‘fragility’ when describing how development works in difficult places. The term ‘complexity’ is more useful as it more accurately reflects the development challenge in fragile countries.
Read the full essay online or browse the full list of SIPRI Essays from 2009 to 2014.