In the universally acclaimed and award-winning The Bottom Billion, Paul Collier reveals that fifty failed states--home to the poorest one billion people on Earth--pose the central challenge of the developing world in the twenty-first century. The book shines much-needed light on this group of small nations, largely unnoticed by the industrialized West, that are dropping further and further behind the majority of the world's people, often falling into an absolute decline in living standards. A struggle rages within each of these nations between reformers and corrupt leaders--and the corrupt are winning. Collier analyzes the causes of failure, pointing to a set of traps that ensnare these countries, including civil war, a dependence on the extraction and export of natural resources, and bad governance. Standard solutions do not work, he writes; aid is often ineffective, and globalization can actually make matters worse, driving development to more stable nations. What the bottom billion need, Collier argues, is a bold new plan supported by the Group of Eight industrialized nations. If failed states are ever to be helped, the G8 will have to adopt preferential trade policies, new laws against corruption, new international charters, and even conduct carefully calibrated military interventions. Collier has spent a lifetime working to end global poverty. In The Bottom Billion, he offers real hope for solving one of the great humanitarian crises facing the world today.

"Terrifically readable."

--Time.com

"Set to become a classic. Crammed with statistical nuggets and common sense, his book should be compulsory reading."

--The Economist

"If Sachs seems too saintly and Easterly too cynical, then Collier is the authentic old Africa hand: he knows the terrain and has a keen ear.... If you've ever found yourself on one side or the other of those arguments--and who hasn't?--then you simply must read this book."

--Niall Ferguson, The New York Times Book Review

"Rich in both analysis and recommendations.... Read this book. You will learn much you do not know. It will also change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty."

--Financial Times

"An important book."--Fareed Zakaria

"Insightful and influential."--Newsweek

"An acclaimed bestseller in 2007, and already a set text in development courses worldwide, Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion has far from exhausted its potential to change the way we think about, teach about, and legislate about global poverty...Its policy recommendations, many of which focus on empowering domestic actors, including through voluntary international standards to serve as rallying cries for reform movements, are not only pragmatic but also addressed squarely to the audience that matters most: the G8. It does not hurt its crossover appeal that The Bottom Billon is a model of good writing for the public understanding of social science."--EthicsandInternational Affairs (publication of the Carnegie Council)

"Excellent...his key recommendations are right on the mark, and his message should resonate in the development discourse for years to come...Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"This is a path-breaking work providing penetrating insights into the largely unexplored borderland between economics and politics."--George Soros

"One of the most important books on world poverty in a very long time."--Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things Magazine

"Provides a penetrating reassessment of why vast populations remain trapped in poverty, despite endless debate over foreign aid policy among wealthy countries and institutions."--Barbara McDougall, Jury Chair, The Lionel Gelber Prize, and Canada's Former Secretary of State for External Affairs

"Workable development ideas are hard to find, but Professor Collier may have identified the next frontier for positive change."--Tyler Cowen, The New York Times

"An important book."--Fareed Zakaria

"The best book on international affairs so far this year."--Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times

"This slip of a book is set to become a classic of the 'how to help the world's poorest' genre. Crammed with statistical nuggets and common sense, his book should be compulsory reading for anyone embroiled in the hitherto thankless business of trying to pull people out of the pit of poverty where the 'bottom billion' of the world's population of 6.6 billion seem irredeemably stuck."--The Economist

"Insightful and influential."--Newsweek

"Terrifically readable."--Time.com

"If Sachs seems too saintly and Easterly too cynical, then Collier is the authentic old Africa hand: he knows the terrain and has a keen ear. As Collier rightly says, it is time to dispense with the false dichotomies that bedevil the current debate on Africa. If you've ever found yourself on one side or the other of those arguments - and who hasn't? - then you simply must read this book."--Niall Ferguson, The New York Times Book Review

"Rich in both analysis and recommendations...Read this book. You will learn much you do not know. It will also change the way you look at the tragedy of persistent poverty in a world of plenty."--Financial Times

"Workable development ideas are hard to find, but Professor Collier may have identified the next frontier for positive change."--Tyler Cowen, The New York Times

"Provides a penetrating reassessment of why vast populations remain trapped in poverty, despite endless debate over foreign aid policy among wealthy countries and institutions."--Barbara McDougall, Jury Chair, The Lionel Gelber Prize, and Canada's Former Secretary of State for External Affairs

"An acclaimed bestseller in 2007, and already a set text in development courses worldwide, Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion has far from exhausted its potential to change the way we think about, teach about, and legislate about global poverty...Its policy recommendations, many of which focus on empowering domestic actors, including through voluntary international standards to serve as rallying cries for reform movements, are not only pragmatic but also addressed squarely to the audience that matters most: the G8. It does not hurt its crossover appeal that The Bottom Billon is a model of good writing for the public understanding of social science."--EthicsandInternational Affairs (publication of the Carnegie Council)

"One of the most important books on world poverty in a very long time."--Richard John Neuhaus, founder of First Things Magazine

"Excellent...his key recommendations are right on the mark, and his message should resonate in the development discourse for years to come...Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"One of the most engaging and provocative books on development to appear in a long time. His analyses and proposals--delivered, by the way, in prose unusually good for an author who happens to be an economist--are sound and should be embraced by people who care and can do something about the poorest of the world." --Ernesto Zedillo, former president of Mexico and director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

"This is an arresting, provocative book, written by an expert in plain English. If you care about the fate of the poorest people in the world, and want to understand what can be done to help them, read it. If you don't care, read it anyway."--Tim Harford, Financial Times columnist and author of The Undercover Economist

"Paul Collier's book is of great importance. He has shown clearly what is happening to the poorest billion in the world, why it is happening and what can be done to open up greater opportunities for them in a world of increasing wealth. His ideas should be at the centre of the policy debate."-Sir Nicholas Stern, Professor at the London School of Economics, Former Chief Economist of the World Bank, and author of The Stern Report on Climate Change

"This is a path-breaking work providing penetrating insights into the largely unexplored borderland between economics and politics."--George Soros

"A persuasive and important challenge to current thinking on development."--Larry Summers

"A lucid and hard-nosed alternative view of the age-old question of development...will no doubt influence and reinvigorate the debate on development for years to come."--International Affairs

"With compassion annealed by smarts; irony softened by warmth; and a commitment to penetrate to the core of things, Collier picks up the tools of economics and forthrightly applies them to the politics and economics of the developing world. Accessible and refreshing, this books provides a blunt and no-nonsense look at a major issue of our times."--Robert H. Bates, Eaton Professor of the Science of Politics, Harvard University

"Professor Collier has a superb and provoking synthesis of the forces and circumstances trapping a billion people in desperate conditions and poverty. For those of us who feel called to serve in the world's most crushing situations, Paul's book is stark affirmation that being there matters. And that it is time for the world community to act in coherent and different ways to bring essential change and hope for the generations to come."--David Young, Senior Vice President, Integrated Ministries and Strategy, World Vision International

Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University. Former director of Development Research at the World Bank, he is one of the world's leading experts on African economies, and is the author of Breaking the Conflict Trap, among other books.

Part I: What's the Issue?

A Personal Preface

1. Falling Behind and Falling Apart: The Bottom Billion

Part II: The Traps

2. The Conflict Trap

3. The Natural Resource Trap

4. Landlocked with Bad Neighbors

5. Bad Governance in a Small Country

Part III: An Interlude: Globalization to the Rescue

6. On Missing the Boat: The Marginalization of the Bottom Billion in the World Economy

Part IV: The Instruments

7. Aid to the Rescue?

8. Military Intervention

9. Laws and Charters

10. Trade

Part V: The Struggle for the Bottom Billion

11. An Agenda for Action

Postscript

Research on Which This Book Is Based