Sentence:  Most cruelly, the immediate security interests of the United States and the states surrounding Somalia are now to keep it a failed state, to prevent Islamists from consolidating even a weak state centered on Mogadishu. The leader of the victorious faction, one Aden Hashi 'Ayro, is said to be a veteran of Afghanistan; he knows well what a small sanctuary in a <WSD>backward</WSD> corner of the globe can mean for al Qaeda. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Of a culture: undeveloped or unsophisticated.