When the Western colonial powers regrouped the Vilayets and replaced the Ottoman forms of political organisation with modern Arab states, they set the trajectory of what constitutes political activity in the Arab world for years to come. They refounded institutions and organised social relations with the aim of regimenting the labour process. They also kept intact precapitalist despotic social control measures. When, after decolonisation, many of these states weakened under military or neoliberal assaults, they were dubbed ‘failed’ states. The neoliberal package is not truly distinct from military assaults; in the AW at least, it is an outcome of Arab defeat and waning sovereignty. Neoliberalism in the developing world is the tribute transfer channel to empire. No cohesive social entity represented in a state would tolerate surplus drain under neoliberalism unless it were in a condition of surrender. Military defeats imposed wealth-draining policies by restructuring national classes to consent to the imperialist terms of capitulation. More recently, many of these states have splintered. However, these failures are not a one-time occurrence after which the states are resurrected in better form. Civil wars are fed to make them last a long time. Many Arab states retain the national symbols and borders, but concretely they are steadily collapsing. As agents of national construction, it is not only their effectiveness in development that is receding; it is also health, education, life expectancy, and the social and productive infrastructure. These are the principal repositories of security.