German State Development Cooperation in and with Fragile States

To pave the way for a country’s development, actors in development cooperation rely on the establishment of a functioning nation-state—because only in this context can bilateral and legally binding agreements ultimately be concluded. If one tries to break out of this ethnocentric perspective, the question arises whether the idea of the developing nation-state is practically applicable everywhere. Can pacification and democratisation in the case of wars and conflicts be achieved from the outside? And if so, how can “failed states” occur? This article deals with the German approach to engagement in fragile states and highlights the importance of the SDGs in this endeavour of German state development cooperation.