Confronting Corruption: Past Concerns, Present Challenges, and Future Strategies

Corruption undermines nearly all key legal and developmental priorities today, including the effective functioning of democratic institutions and honest elections; environmental protection; human rights and human security; international development programs; and fair competition for global trade and investment. This book chronicles the global anticorruption steps taken since the movement advanced after the end of the Cold War. It provides a realistic assessment of the present state of affairs by critically evaluating what existing anticorruption programs and treaties have accomplished and documenting their shortcomings, while developing an action agenda for the next decade.

The authors argue that reformative action is imperative, and the forces of globalization and digital communication will level the playing field and erode the secrecy corruption requires. They define corruption, document its effects, discuss the initiatives that changed public perception, analyze the lessons learned, and then evaluate how to move forward with existing initiatives charting a new path with new, differentiated strategies.

Fritz Heimann is one of the founders of Transparency International (TI), the global coalition against corruption. He served on TI's Board of Directors until 2003, and has been a member of the International Advisory Council since 2003. He organized TI's US Chapter (TI-USA) in 1993, served as its chair for twelve years, and continues as a director. He also serves as Vice-Chair of the Anti-Corruption Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris. He is the co-editor of Fighting Corruption: International Corporate Integrity Handbook, (with Francois Vincke, 2008). Mr. Heimann has written extensively about anticorruption, including two articles published by Foreign Affairs in 1998 and 2006.

Mark Pieth is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. From 1989 to 1993, he was Head of Section--Economic and Organized Crime at the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (Ministry of Justice and Police). Between 1990 and 2013, he chaired the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions, also participating in the Wolfsberg AML Banking Initiative as a facilitator. In spring 2004, he was appointed by the UN Secretary General to the Independent Inquiry Committee into the Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme. In 2008, Professor Pieth was made a member of the Integrity Advisory Board of The World Bank Group (IAB), advising the President of Bank and the Audit Committee on integrity issues. From 2011 to 2013 he chaired the Independent Governance Committee of FIFA to consult corporations, international organizations, and foreign governments on issues related to governance and to publish extensively in the field of economic and organized crime, money laundering, corruption, sanctioning and criminal procedure. He has formerly served as Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Basel.