"Heading Towards A Black Hole"

Part 2 of The Bottom Billion deals with the characteristics of failing nations. Collier likens these characteristics to "traps" that hold these 58 nations back.

Collier identifies 4 traps:

1. the conflict trap
2. the natural resource trap
3. landlocked with bad neighbors
4. bad governance in a small country

Collier does not suggest that all of the 58 nations have all of these characteristics. Development is impeded by falling into one of these traps. The main feature of all of these countries at some point has been bad governance in a small country, but not all nations have fallen into the conflict trap and not all nations have exploitable natural resources.

To understand Collier's solutions, it is important to have a good understanding of what he sees as the problems. An explanation of each trap follows...