Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky

'Arguably the most important intellectual alive.'

The New York Times

'America’s most useful citizen.'

The Boston Globe

The United States asserts the right to use military force against ‘failed states’ around the globe. But as Noam Chomsky argues in this devastating analysis, America shares features with many of the regimes it insists are failing and constitute a danger to their neighbours.


Offering a comprehensive and radical examination of America past and present, Chomsky shows how this lone superpower – which topples foreign governments, invades states that threaten its interests and imposes sanctions on regimes it opposes – has stretched its own democratic institutions to breaking point. And how an America in crisis places the world ever closer to the brink of nuclear and environmental disaster.

The book examines how the United States is beginning to resemble a failed state that cannot protect its citizens from violence and has a government that regards itself as beyond the reach of domestic or international law.

Though Professor Chomsky also presents a series of solutions to help rescue the nation from turning into a failed state. They include: Accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and the World Court; Sign the Kyoto protocols on global warming; Let the United Nations take the lead in international crises; Rely on diplomatic and economic measures rather than military ones in confronting terror; and Sharply reduce military spending and sharply increase social spending.

Forceful, lucid, and meticulously documented, Failed States offers a comprehensive analysis of a global superpower that has long claimed the right to reshape other nations while its own democratic institutions are in severe crisis. Systematically dismantling the United States’ pretense of being the world’s arbiter of democracy, Failed States is Chomsky’s most focused—and urgent—critique to date.

Ali G interviews Noam Chomsky. Yes, you read that right. Ali G meets one of the most influential academics in America. For real. Here.

About the Author

Noam Chomsky is the author of numerous bestselling political works, from American Power and the New Mandarins in the 1960s to Hegemony or Survival in 2003. A professor of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, he lives outside Boston, Massachusetts. Widely regarded to be one of the foremost critics of U.S. foreign policy in the world. He has published numerous groundbreaking books, articles, and essays on global politics, history, and linguistics. Among his recent books are the New York Times bestsellers Hegemony or Survival and Failed States.

Want to find out more about this hugely influential and equally divisive academic? Check out his website here...