A **20 slide presentation **for students investigating why states fail. Lots of opportunity for discussion, activites can be added if you wish. It approaches the question from the basis that a nation state is an idea, and not innate, as proposed by many but most recently by Yuval Noah Harari in his book ‘Sapiens’. In this presentation, students will be given the main indicators as to why states fail (with examples, i.e. comparing USA to Mexico, South Korea to North Korea) along with how ideas can change the direction of a state.