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état néant

English translation: failed state

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
French term or phrase:état néant
English translation:failed state
Entered by: Una D.

09:32 Jan 7, 2021
French to English translations [PRO]
Government / Politics / Central African Affairs
French term or phrase: état néant
Context: A formal report about the Chadian government and army, and a section which talks about how conditions in Chad have improved in recent years. It seems that Valéry Giscard d’Estaing had called Chad "un Etat néant" in the past, which is what I believe this sentence in the text alludes to:

" Moussa Faki [...] affirmait : « le Tchad, qui était qualifié il y a quelques années d’Etat néant, est non seulement présent, mais il est agissant ». "

I gather that this term "Etat néant" means a sort of void state, governed by tyranny and with no real political and legal systems in place.

I'm not sure whether this is an official term or more like a slur, or what a good English equivalent would be.

Any help much appreciated, thanks!
Una D.
France
Local time: 11:08
failed state OR non-state
Explanation:
I think "failed state" is a well-established expression in EN for the idea of a state that is failing to function (see a definition below), but "non-state" is another idea I'd consider.

"Failed state, a state that is unable to perform the two fundamental functions of the sovereign nation-state in the modern world system: it cannot project authority over its territory and peoples, and it cannot protect its national boundaries. The governing capacity of a failed state is attenuated such that it is unable to fulfill the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal public services. Its citizens no longer believe that their government is legitimate, and the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/failed-state
Selected response from:

Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
Grading comment
Thank you, I think this fits the bill!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3 +8failed state OR non-state
Peter Shortall
4 +2a non-existent state
Ben Gaia
4 +1Phantom State
Bokani Hart
4Null State
Carol Gullidge
4a stateless state
Daryo
4Failed state
Shiam Alshami
4dysfuntional state
AllegroTrans
3an anarchic nation-state
Adrian MM.


Discussion entries: 2





  

Answers


27 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
Etat néant
a non-existent state


Explanation:
This would be better than "void" as an English rendering. "Void" and "nothingness" are used in translations of Sartre's philosophy as opposites to "Being" or "existence", but in this context I suggest the above.

Ben Gaia
New Zealand
Local time: 21:08
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 16

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  liz askew: https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/néant/53988
27 mins
agree  Conor McAuley: (Edit) "the Chadian State...a non-existent state". I don't think you can put "Chad...non-existent State. In English, the country is not the state, if you see what I mean. The usual term, failed state, doesn't fit nicely into the sentence.
3 hrs
neutral  AllegroTrans: But Chad IS a state, with a government, however corrupt, so calling it non-existent is misleading imo
8 hrs
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Etat néant
Null State


Explanation:
I feel that the derogatory tone of the ST very much needs to be retained here:

Null means having no value; [ ...] Null also means invalid, or having no binding force. From the Latin nullus, meaning "not any," poor, powerless null is not actually there at all. Or if it was, it's gone now.
...lacking any legal or binding force
...a quantity of no importance

From vocabulary.com

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2021-01-07 10:54:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------



OR: a Non-Entity State



    Reference: http://https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/null
Carol Gullidge
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 24

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  AllegroTrans: You have arguably conveyed the meaning, but "null state" sounds like something from I.T.
7 hrs
  -> Oh dear, sorry about that, although have to confess I have no idea what you’re referring to!
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Etat néant
a stateless state


Explanation:
A wordplay on "stateless person"

This translation was coined by someone who seems to know the story inside-out, so I would tend to trust it.

in writings on Chad and its efforts to become a vibrant and prosperous nation. Sam C. Nolutshungu, for example, writes in his Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formations in Chad,

"Desperately poor and locked in perpetual strife, Chad-which has lived suspended between creation and destruction for most of its three or so decades-was not of much consequence in the strategic competition of the great powers. At the highest estimate one more theater of Libyan mischief making in the Sahel, Chad was aberrant, marginal, a fictive state at a time when other states, whatever their weaknesses, generally seemed permanent, even in an Africa marked by an economic and political failure. Chad’s domestic political evolution seemed a model of failure with little to teach the outside world."

I begin this chapter by acknowledging and refuting the above statement. On one hand, it is true that, fifty years after Chad gained independence from France, Chad’s independence is only nominal, and therefore a matter of debate--France still plays a strong role in Chad’s affairs. It is also true that the country has seen great conflict. The late 1970s and early 1980s saw Chad in a series of devastating wars that placed Chadian as primary combatants, while, in fact, they were serving as proxies for European super powers, who sought their own interests, along with the selling of their weapons and war machineries. Also during that time, Moammar Gadhafi, the Libyan president, annexed the Aouzou strip, which is located in the extreme north of the country. Chad in these years was “un état néant” (a stateless state). Put otherwise, Chad’s “nation-ness” was threatened by wars, and its map was almost redesigned. Libyan annexation lasted until February 1994, until the International Court of Justice in The Hague restituted the Aouzou strip to Chad.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3...



--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2021-01-07 10:45:52 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

It also makes sense a "stateless person" has no solid anchoring point, is just drifting - like Tchad in these years ...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 1 hr (2021-01-07 10:55:22 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------


Le Tchad est un « Etat néant » avait dit à l’époque un Président français en exercice, Valérie Giscard d’Estaing. Un autre Président français en exercice, en l’occurrence Jacques Chirac, avait dit que le Tchad n’est pas un Etat, mais « un territoire délimité par les frontières des pays voisins ». Plus récemment, l’actuel Président français en exercice, Nicolas Sarkozy, avait testé les affirmations de ses prédécesseurs en affirmant publiquement être capable d’aller au Tchad « chercher ceux [des auteurs de crime français] qui restent quoi qu’ils aient fait, je dis bien quoi qu’ils aient fait ». Sarkozy a même osé dire en face de son homologue Déby que ce n’est pas parce que celui-ci est légitime qu’il peut « se permettre de faire n’importe quoi ». A quel autre Chef d’Etat digne de cette appellation, un autre chef d’Etat (une puissance militaire mondiale soit-il) peut-il tenir un tel langage en public ?

http://east-side-chad.over-blog.com/article-21498959.html

Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in SerbianSerbian, Native in FrenchFrench
PRO pts in category: 33

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  AllegroTrans: Persons can be stateless, but it doesn't really work for states. A state is a state is a state, whatever its condition may be. Think of "rotten boroughs" in England, they were nevertheless boroughs.
7 hrs
  ->  "rotten boroughs" in England, nevertheless being boroughs? Yes, most of them, but what about the surrealist story of the sessions of "borough council" of Dunwich being held in a boat above the sunken town hall...? // As a figure of speech, it's fine
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
Etat néant
Phantom State


Explanation:
See...:

https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/central-africa/central-af...

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-mystery-of-phantom-st...

Bokani Hart
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  SafeTex: I like this and it gets nice hits
2 hrs
  -> Thank you!
neutral  Carol Gullidge: the term does indeed exist, but seems in both of your reference articles to be applied to Central African Republic (CAR) rather than to Chad
4 hrs
  -> Thanks for your feedback - note that the Brookings Institution article talks about phantom states in general
neutral  AllegroTrans: I don't see anything "phantom" about Chad; it plainly exists and if you risked going there ( one of the most dangerous countries in the world) and assuming you returned safely I doubt whether you would call your experience there phantom
7 hrs
  -> It's a state, AllegroTrans, but not as we know it :-)
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +8
Etat néant
failed state OR non-state


Explanation:
I think "failed state" is a well-established expression in EN for the idea of a state that is failing to function (see a definition below), but "non-state" is another idea I'd consider.

"Failed state, a state that is unable to perform the two fundamental functions of the sovereign nation-state in the modern world system: it cannot project authority over its territory and peoples, and it cannot protect its national boundaries. The governing capacity of a failed state is attenuated such that it is unable to fulfill the administrative and organizational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal public services. Its citizens no longer believe that their government is legitimate, and the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/failed-state

Peter Shortall
United Kingdom
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 12
Grading comment
Thank you, I think this fits the bill!

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Yvonne Gallagher: I think that is most common in English
48 mins
  -> Thanks, Yvonne!
agree  Carol Gullidge: Funnily enough, I was just about to add "non-state' to my suggestions, but very much like "failed state" as well!
1 hr
  -> Thanks, Carol. Truth be told, it was a combination of your answer and Ben's that inspired me to think of "non-state", so you can claim some of the credit for that one!
agree  Clive Phillips: Yes, 'failed state'.
4 hrs
  -> Thanks, Clive!
agree  Francois Boye: failed state
4 hrs
  -> Thanks, Francois!
agree  AllegroTrans: failed state
6 hrs
  -> Thanks!
agree  Eliza Hall
10 hrs
  -> Thanks, Eliza!
agree  James A. Walsh
22 hrs
  -> Thanks, James!
agree  EirTranslations
1 day 2 hrs
  -> Thanks!
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6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Etat néant
Failed state


Explanation:



https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1145786/download
https://www.britannica.com/topic/failed-state

Shiam Alshami
Canada
Local time: 05:08
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Arabic

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  AllegroTrans: This is the same as Peter's answer, so you should post an "agree" to his answer, not repeat it
2 hrs
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8 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
Etat néant
dysfuntional state


Explanation:
www.telegraph.co.uk › ... › Climate & People
15 Nov 2018 — Chad has been dysfunctional for decades, even before Idriss Deby, the ... Mr Deby has also convinced European states that he provides the ...

www.news24.com › news24 › 7-africa-states-dysfunction...
24 Jun 2008 — Seven of the world's 10 most dysfunctional countries are in ... The top 10, in order, were Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Iraq, Congo, ...

military forces and police in dysfunctional states of sub ... - JStor
www.jstor.org › stable
Key words: dysfunctional states, Sub-Saharan Africa, military forces, police ... Chadian mercenaries and units of rebels recruited mainly from the northern part of ...
by R KŁOSOWICZ · ‎2017 · ‎Related articles

Warlords and Militarism in Chad - JStor
www.jstor.org › stable
trajectory of the Chadian state (and its successive regimes). In the case of ... building, is perceived by Africanists as automatically and inherently dysfunctional.
by R Charlton · ‎1989 · ‎Cited by 51 · ‎Related articles

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:08
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 49
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23 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
an anarchic nation-state


Explanation:
State - lest it be confused with a 'nihilistic condition' - ought really to be prefaced with nation or be described as government.

Example sentence(s):
  • the nation-state in Chad is of course a real challenge, but precisely we must ... BET equation which houses groups that are deemed anarchic.
  • Anarchy is the state of a society being freely constituted without authorities or a governing body. It may also refer to a society or group of people that entirely rejects a set hierarchy. Anarchy was first used in 1539, meaning "an absence of government"

    Reference: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/anarchy
Adrian MM.
Austria
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 8

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  AllegroTrans: I see no difficulty in placing one adjective with "state" such as would not cause any confusion
5 hrs
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