OK, let’s get this out of the way first: shameless self-promotion alert. I had the pleasure of contributing a chapter to Corruption, Global Security, and World Order but am recommending it much less for my chapter and much more for all the others.
Compiled by Bob Rotberg at Harvard, and published by Brookings Institution Press, Corruption, Global Security, and World Order is an ambitious collection of papers that attempt to step back and explore why corruption matters, not just for economic growth (the usual dependent variable) but for global security and world order writ large.
You can order the book from Brookings or Amazon or a neighborhood book shop.
It’s no small task, but Rotberg assembled a veritable Who’s Who of all-stars to contribute chapters, including Peter Eigen (co-founder of Transparency International and current chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)), Susan Rose-Ackerman of Yale University (one of the original academic thinkers on the drivers of corruption), Johan Lambsdorff (grandfather of the Corruptions Perceptions Index), and Jomo Kwame Sunduram (a Malaysian economist and current Assistant Secretary-General at the United Nations).
And that’s just to name a few; the book is chock full of fascinating analysis from dozens of leading academics and practitioners. What makes this volume so unique is its fresh take on corruption by “non-experts” such as Matt Bunn (non-proliferation guru), Bob Levgold (US-Russia guru), Kelly Greenhill (organized crime guru), and Jessica Teets and Erica Chenoweth (terrorism gurus). When you force super smart folks such as these to apply analytic lenses that are different from the norm to the problem of corruption, you end up with some pretty interesting reading.
The best part about having played a role in the book was having the opportunity to spend two weekends at Harvard camped out on the beautiful campus of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences debating ideas and draft papers with all of the authors. It’s rare to have the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day grind to think deep thoughts, and it turns out to to be a refreshing and rewarding experience. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute, Bob.
Have a look at the book and hit us up with thoughts or feedback here or to @globalintegrity on Twitter.
— Nathaniel Heller
