Diagnosis,Intervention,and Cure: The Illness Narrative in the Discourse of the Failed State

Failed-states discourse rests on an illness narrative. As the failing state battles against invasion by the terrorism “virus,” the United States serves as physician, diagnosing, treating, and sometimes “curing” the patient. The well state exists in a dominant power relationship vis-à-vis the sick state and the sick state has no voice in decision making regarding its future. Just as sick people have less autonomy than those who are well, sick states have less sovereignty than healthy ones. An uncooperative patient may be deemed incompetent and treated without his consent. Constructivist and feminist analyses of the medical process can shed light on and help in our creation of a revisionist/feminist analysis of the failed-state paradigm.