The U.S. President Establishes the Fight Against Corruption as a Core United States National Security Interest

Technical Staff

June 19, 2021

On June 3, 2021, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. set the right tone at the top for combatting corruption. For the first time in U.S. history, he issued a memorandum that regarded the fight against corruption as a core national security interest 1. He said, ” corruption threatens United States national security, economic equity, global anti-poverty and development efforts, and democracy itself.” The President said that his administration will “lead efforts” to:

Promote good governance;
Bring transparency to the United States and global financial systems;
Prevent and combat corruption at home and abroad; and
Make it increasingly difficult for corrupt actors to shield their activities.

Biden directed his administration “to conduct an interagency review process” and “develop a Presidential strategy” that shall significantly strengthen the United States Government to achieve ten objectives (from a to J as mentioned in the memorandum). The memorandum stated that ” the interagency review shall be completed within 200 days of the date of this memorandum, and the Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor shall submit a report and recommendations to the President for further direction and action.”

Careful analysis of the ten objectives the Presidential strategy seeks to achieve shows that the fight against corruption in the U.S. and abroad shall witness significant changes. We believe that the U.S foreign policy shall be affected by countries’ effective engagement in combating corruption.

New Terminology

For the first time, we noticed a new “language” and concepts regarding the fight against corruption.

1- Corruption “prevention” is emphasized.

2- The implied assumption is that neither the United States nor the rest of the globe has done enough to combat corruption.

3- The U.S. is determined to establish “global anti-corruption norms.“

4- The United States will make significant efforts in anti-corruption education for all of its stakeholders at all levels in the U.S and abroad.

Foreign Corrupt Leaders

We believe that there is an unusual deterrence impact on corrupt leaders worldwide.

Objective (e) says the following:

“Support and strengthen the capacity of civil society, media, and other oversight and accountability actors to conduct research and analysis on corruption trends, advocate for preventative measures, investigate and uncover corruption, hold leaders accountable, and inform and support government accountability and reform efforts, and work to provide these actors a safe and open operating environment domestically and internationally;”

Objective (f) says the following:

“Work with international partners to counteract strategic corruption by foreign leaders, foreign state-owned or affiliated enterprises, transnational criminal organizations, and other foreign actors and their domestic collaborators, including, by closing loopholes exploited by these actors to interfere in democratic processes in the United States and abroad;”

Combatting Corruption is Not an Option

Fighting corruption is not a choice: it is a national and international duty. The President described what corruption does when he said that ” corruption corrodes public trust; hobbles effective governance; distorts markets and equitable access to services; undercuts development efforts; contributes to national fragility, extremism, and migration; and provides authoritarian leaders a means to undermine democracies worldwide. When leaders steal from their nations’ citizens or oligarchs flout the rule of law, economic growth slows, inequality widens, and trust in government plummets.”