Document Actions
Corruption and International Security
Title: Corruption and International Security
Date: Winter – Spring 2005
Author: Kimberley Thachuck
Institution: SAIS
Bibliographic Entry: Thachuck, Kimberley. “Corruption and International Security.” SAIS Review vol. XXV no. 1. Winter – Spring 2005. http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/sais_review/v025/25.1thachuk.html (Accessed February 5, 2008).
Electronic Link: http://muse.jhu.edu/demo/sais_review/v025/25.1thachuk.html
Key Words: corruption, terrorism, global war on terror, sovereignty, organized crime
Summary of Key Points, Issues, Conclusions:
Corruption has become the enabler by which groups who commit conspiracies on a global scale may threaten international security with relative impunity. Criminal organizations and terrorists use corruption first to breach the sovereignty of many states and then to distort domestic and international affairs. Thachuck overviews the most common areas of corruption: justice systems, security forces, and trade/financial sectors. The war on terrorism has been shifting to countries with corruption problems, because terrorist groups are able to use the organized infrastructure and well-grounded political base to guarantee impunity. Here, terrorists use corrupt charities, drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion, fraud, smuggling, and other criminal operations to fund operations. Thachuck advocates “the most successful instrument for attacking rampant corruption in any number of countries… the media.”
Name of Researcher: Katie Stout
Institution: Integrative Center for Homeland Security, Texas A&M University
Date Posted: February 12, 2008