This blog is an adaptation of the chapter on transparency and accountability from “Toward a Marshall Plan for Ukraine: New Ideas and Recommendations”, by Norman Eisen, Alina Inayeh, Jacob Kirkegaard, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff, Josh Rudolph, and Bruce [...]
From Ukraine’s courageous defense of its own sovereignty and democracy to the ongoing demands for human rights and reform in Iran, there are many reasons for optimism about the future of the liberal democratic order. But this hope ought to be tempere [...]
Executive Summary The greatest threats facing the two most consequential elections in and around Europe in 2023—Turkey in May and Poland in the fall—come from autocratic corruption within these two backsliding democracies. Both these countries are [...]
The scale of Russia’s devastation and destruction in Ukraine will eventually have to be matched by a recovery and reconstruction process equal to the Marshall Plan. To prevent the massive flow of financial assistance from leaking into corruption and [...]
US President Joe Biden’s Ukraine, Poland, and NATO meetings last week in the run up to the one-year mark of Russia’s attack on Ukraine was historic—and effective. He shored up support among Ukraine’s allies, undercut adversaries abroad and critics a [...]
At the start of the new year, we asked our experts to each put forth one recommendation that would strengthen democracy during a period of declining trust, emboldened autocrats, and war. Their answers touch on a variety of issues—from the war in Ukr [...]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, taking the security risk to come to Washington for meetings with President Joe Biden and lawmakers, reassured a joint session of Congress yesterday that, “Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the [...]
Likely Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives poses a potential obstacle for support to Ukraine. Key members of the potential incoming House caucus and outside influencers have suggested resistance to further aid. That is not only [...]
What will it take to rebuild Ukraine when the war is over? A report released in September by the World Bank, Ukrainian government, and the European Commission estimates that Russia’s unprovoked invasion has already caused more than $97 billion in d [...]
Expectations were not high going into Tuesday’s conference in Berlin convened by the German Presidency of the G7 and the European Commission on Ukrainian recovery and reconstruction. In one respect, those low expectations were met: The conference fa [...]
Given how valiantly Ukrainians are defending the front lines of the free world, a morally and politically difficult job will fall to the leaders of the United States and the European Union: They will have to insist on sending Ukraine hundreds of bil [...]
Yesterday, the Biden administration released its National Security Strategy, which focuses on the competition between democracy and autocracy, lays out threats coming from Russia and China, and notes that the US must both strengthen democracy at hom [...]
Kleptocracies seem to enjoy powerful coherence between their domestic and foreign policies, given that they wield power at home and abroad through the same corrupt assemblage of actors, networks, tactics, and resources. By prioritizing the fight aga [...]
Introduction and Summary Kleptocracies do not stop at their own borders. The same actors, networks, tactics, and resources that they wield to prevent democracy and rule of law from sprouting at home are also repurposed for foreign aggression. Whil [...]
Foreign Policy brought together 10 prominent thinkers to share their most important fixes to reform the workings of democracy, defend it against its enemies at home and abroad, and ensure it survives and thrives by better serving the people it gover [...]
Last week, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden hosted a virtual Summit for Democracy with 110 countries and governments, in which he called on leaders to make commitments to bolster democracy before an in-person summit is hosted later in 2022—but did the [...]
Panelists: Will Fitzgibbon, Senior Reporter, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Sydney Freedberg, Chief Reporter, International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Neil Jeans, Principal Consultant, Initialism Lakshmi Kumar, Po [...]
The new US Strategy on Countering Corruption was released hours before the Summit for Democracy and promises to rewrite the rulebook on global anticorruption efforts. Josh Rudolph of the German Marshall Fund joins Casey, Nate and Paul to discuss wh [...]
On December 9 and 10, U.S. President Joseph R. Biden will bring together leaders from 110 countries and governments for a virtual Summit for Democracy based around three key themes: defending against authoritarianism; addressing and fighting corrupt [...]
Key Point Consolidating the international consensus that the professional enablers of corruption should be required to watch out for dirty money would require landmark reform initiatives—split roughly evenly between enacting new rules and enforcing [...]
Alliance for Securing Democracy Malign Finance Fellow Josh Rudolph discusses the “Pandora Papers” and the federal legislative response. [...]
Leaked Papers Expose Need for US to Act on Enablers of Dirty Money The U.S. government should respond to the Pandora Papers – an investigation by a group of news media outlets based on 11.9 million private financial records – with sweeping and forc [...]
The professional services offered by the US and UK remain an Achilles’ heel in the fight against illicit finance. This discussion will consider how London and Washington can make a step-change in combatting these facilitators. Criminals, malign acto [...]
As revelations from the “Pandora Papers” continue to rock the world of high finance, investigators are pointing to ways the offshore accounting system can be reformed and made more transparent. Maíra Martini, a money-laundering expert with Transpare [...]
A recent new report released to the Wall Street Journal reveals some financial secrets of how some of the world's wealthiest and powerful political leaders have managed to hide billions of dollars. According to the report, some of the leaders involv [...]
Yesterday, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists released what they call the Pandora Papers. The exposé revealed the financial secrets and offshore deals of dozens of heads of state politicians, public officials, and celebrities [...]
Modern dictatorship relies on access to the West. Lawyers, lobbyists, accountants, real estate professionals, consultants, and others help kleptocrats launder their money and reputations—and exert undue influence in democracies—in exchange for dirty [...]
If Biden is serious about fighting corruption, he needs to regulate 10 key white-collar professions. The FBI has long viewed obscure private investment funds as dangerous financial pathways for malevolent foreign activities. Nearly a decade ago, th [...]
Executive Summary When kleptocrats, foreign intelligence services, homegrown autocrats, and other malign actors weaponize corruption to undermine U.S. democracy, their financial secrecy relies upon the services of ten sectors of U.S. professionals [...]
The fight against corruption has emerged as a defining struggle of our era and a key area of emphasis for the Biden administration and Congress. In late May, the White House designated combating corruption as a core national security interest, an un [...]
President Biden’s trip to demonstrate “America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners” and showcase “the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats” culminates with a one-on-one meeting between Biden and Russi [...]
While President Joe Biden’s critics have been arguing that sitting down with Putin on June 16 would look weak and wobbly, White House officials have kept their heads down and laid the groundwork for what could become the most sweeping policy initiat [...]
Malign Finance Fellow Josh Rudolph discusses how we should approach corruption and kleptocracy from a policy perspective and why Treasury needs to "get with the program." Related reading: Coordinating the War on Corruption by Josh Rudolph Treasury [...]
Josh Rudolph and Abigail Bellows join Nate Sibley to explore how diplomacy, foreign development aid, and financial policy can be leveraged against kleptocracy. Casey Michel and Paul Massaro discuss the hijacking of an airliner by Belarus. [...]
It was always going to be a difficult needle to thread. The Biden administration clearly views Russia’s Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline as a geopolitical project that threatens European energy security and that of Ukraine and eastern flank NATO a [...]
The U.S. Treasury Department must make it a priority, Malign Finance Fellow Josh Rudolph argues in Foreign Affairs. Combating corruption and kleptocracy has traditionally been an afterthought in U.S. foreign policy: a goal that most policymakers c [...]
Executive Summary The Biden administration has a historic opportunity to unify U.S. domestic and foreign policy through an aggressive mission to combat corruption and kleptocracy. Middle-class Americans are frustrated by perceptions of corruption [...]
How do you sanction a problem like Russia? For nearly a decade, the United States and its allies have been levying sanctions against Moscow in an effort to deter its revanchist behavior and contain its malign influence activities. And over this per [...]
Key Point Beneficial ownership reform offers a historic opportunity—if strongly implemented—to build resilience against what has become a leading national security threat: malign actors funded by and weaponizing the proceeds of kleptocracy to harm t [...]
The Russia sanctions announced by the Biden administration on Thursday did not impose severe financial costs on Moscow, although the measures are stronger than those of the Trump administration because they are credibly reinforced by the president’s [...]