TED.com commenter David Smith points us to this new interview with Ashraf Ghani, available as a podcast from the BBC World Service. Ghani (watch his TEDTalk) is the co-author of the new book Fixing Failed States — a subject he learned firsthand as a reformer in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Interviewer Peter Day of the program Global Business asks Ghani, “How do we define a failed state?” From the interview:

Peter Day: If I were seeking some sort of layperson’s response to the failed state idea, I’d say it’s a kind of measurement of the amount of despair there is in a place.

Ashraf Ghani: Despair is definitely the most important. Because when there is hope — and between 2001-2005 in Afghanistan there was enormous hope — that hope becomes the ground to build the foundation.