Breaking Up Is Good to Do

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/01/13/breaking_up_is_good_to_do

Southern Sudan is just the beginning. The world may soon have 300 independent, sovereign nations ... and that's just fine.

Whether or not Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo technically qualify as "failed states," their fates are sealed by their colonial inheritance. Indeed, it's often their borders that are the deepest cause of their conflicts. Many of these national borders are in desperate need of adjustment, and the rest of the world should show more flexibility in allowing them to do so. Europe messed it up the first time, but now the West can support the right regional bodies to adjudicate these new borders -- helping others help themselves in the process.