President Joe Biden has declared fighting corruption a core national security interest, and last month, the White House released a strategy to combat corruption globally. These are welcome moves, but to effectively impede corruption around the world, America needs to take a serious look at how our government inadvertently facilitates it too.
Corruption, the abuse or misuse of state resources or positions of authority for personal gain, is endemic in many countries across the globe and remains a fundamental obstacle to better governance and better standards of living worldwide.
Low-level corruption, like the bribes demanded by police at roadside checkpoints or by civil servants, increases the costs of transport, trade and essential commercial goods, such as food and medicine. High-level corruption — when political leaders steal vast sums of money from the public coffers — costs all of society by impairing the provision of basic social services.
