Total anarchy thus faces a little coral island (7)
I believe the answer is:
sumatra
'island' is the definition.
(I know that Sumatra is a island)
'total anarchy thus faces a little coral' is the wordplay.
'total' becomes 'sum' (synonyms).
'faces' indicates taking the first letters (I've seen 'face of' mean this).
'a little coral' becomes 'ra' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
The first letters of 'anarchy thus' is 'at'.
'sum'+'at'+'ra'='SUMATRA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sumatra that I've seen before include "part of Indonesia" , "Some land" , "A US mart on an Indonesian island?" , "island in Indian ocean" , "Second largest Indonesian island" .)