Strategic corruption: conceptual deconstruction and theoretical development

Over the past few years, scholars researching corruption have increasingly acknowledged the links between corruption and the violation of human rights and national security. These links were prompted by (among other events) three significant international developments: the allegations of bribing the Members of the European Parliament by Qatar; the assertive diplomatic efforts of China in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America; and the Russian use of corruption in the energy sector and illegitimate political finance in Europe to improve its geo-strategic position while invading of Ukraine. These events have further highlighted the threats posed by kleptocratic regimes, in which political actors capture the private sector by corrupt means, to international security arrangements. Reflecting the increasing attention given to corruption by the field of international relations, the slightly earlier concept of ‘foreign malign influence’—i.e., ‘the enduring threat posed by hostile foreign actors, seeking to undermine governments, public opinion and behaviors through overt or covert means’--paved the way to a second one—strategic corruption, or the use of corruption in pursuit of geopolitical goals. Under the label of strategic corruption, the traditional approach to corruption, focused on national conditions and private economic benefits, is replaced with an emphasis on transnational networks and inter-state competition. While the emergence of a new concept to emphasize political and international dimensions seems to merely reflect an already expansion in the analysis of corruption threats, it arrives at a time when the field continues to move toward a better appreciation of corruption as an umbrella term rather than a singular phenomenon, so that more precise concepts and/or qualifiers may provide needed significance and clarity. However, strategic corruption also emerges into a crowded arena of terminology that includes concepts such as ‘malign influence’, ‘corrosive capital’, ‘weaponized corruption’, ‘interstate corruption’, and others, with a significant degree of overlap. Moreover, the specific relationship between strategic corruption and forms of corruption that share its political dimension but not its transnational one—most importantly, ‘kleptocracy’, - needs to be further elaborated. The ongoing research project aims to, first, offer an empirically-grounded typology of corruption specifically tailored to address the two key dimensions associated with strategic corruption—namely, transnationalism and inter-state competition. The result is expected to offer conceptual clarity on which distinct strands of research may be pursued in a more effective way. Once these parameters are recognized, the project then aims to produce a theoretical framework for assessing distinct mechanisms adopted by state actors and their associates in their use of strategic corruption. This stage will be completed by conducting a preliminary test of the framework against selected international cases that fit the conceptual definition.