Held July 13, 2012 | The Fund for Peace Event, Washington, D.C.

- Keynote Address by General Michael V. Hayden (Ret.)
- Overview of the Failed States Index 2012 by J. J. Messner
- Expert Panel on Innovative Technology and its Role in Conflict Assessment and Prevention with Krista Hendry, Joseph Bermudez and James "Spike" Stephenson
- General Q&A

The FSI is a leading index that annually highlights current trends in social, economic and political pressures that affect all states, but can strain some beyond their capacity to cope. Apart from the impact on their people, fragile and failed states present the international community with a variety of challenges. In today's world, with its globalized economy, information systems and security challenges, pressures on one fragile state can have serious repercussions not only for that state and its people, but also for its neighbors and other states halfway across the globe.

Linking robust social science with modern technology, the FSI is unique in its integration of quantitative data with data produced using content-analysis software to process information from millions of publicly available documents. The result is an empirically- based, comprehensive ranking of the pressures experienced by 177 nations. The FSI is used by policy makers, civil society, academics, journalists and businesses around the world.