Scientific Essay from the year 2006 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,3, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict), course: European Master Programme, 23 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In some regions of the world a fundamental development crisis has increased the contradictory situation inside of society and the struggle of distribution. Deformed and failed processes of modernization and transformation manifest and cause a politicised society. Ethnic struggles, failing states and social processes of chaos lead to warlike conflicts and political structures have to be installed while the economy and the society are influenced by force. With a focus on - often only formally existing - states of Subsahara Africa, a World Bank Discussion Paper even describes the current status of many of these countries as a "stable situation of instability". A situation that often leads to so called "political economies of threat and combat" which includes a growing number of people who have an interest in the maintenance of the conflict and a high propensity to violence. An important challenge of the international community is to deal with the possibilities of a preventive policy to minimize the chances of such a political radicalization. Furthermore the question remains of how to react, if state failures finally lead to massive human rights violations and even genocide within those countries.