As Foreign Policy’s Elizabeth Dickinson writes in the introduction to this powerful photo essay, “As the photos here demonstrate, sometimes the best test is the simplest one: You’ll only know a failed state when you see it.”
 

 
Here, men in Uganda rallying against corrupt strongman Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, burn a bus in protest.
 

 
Intercommunal violence in Nigeria’s middle belt means the sight of mass graves is common in the area.
 
The Failed States Index 2010 (Foreign Policy)