President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a memorandum that brands the fight against corruption as a core national security interest of the United States, calling it “a risk to our national security.”
“Corruption eats away at the foundations of democratic societies,” Biden said in a statement. “It makes government less effective, wastes public resources, and exacerbates inequalities in access to services, making it harder for families to provide for their loved ones.”
“Corruption attacks the foundations of democratic institutions, drives and intensifies extremism, and makes it easier for authoritarian regimes to corrode democratic governance,” he continued.
To that end, Biden released a National Security Study Memorandum (NSSM), his first such study since assuming the presidency, which labels battling corruption a core U.S. national security interest and directs a 200-day interagency review to make recommendations which will “significantly bolster the ability of the U.S. government to combat corruption.”
Priorities outlined by the White House for agencies to address include:
- How best to modernize, coordinate and resource efforts to fight corruption, including increasing resources aimed at confronting corruption at home and abroad
- Curbing illicit finance, including reducing offshore financial secrecy, seizing stolen assets, and making it more difficult for those who steal to hide behind anonymity
- Building international partnerships, directing agencies to work with international partners such as the United Nations and G7 “to counteract strategic corruption emanating from autocratic and kleptocratic governments, foreign state-owned or affiliated enterprises, and transnational criminal organizations”
- Holding corrupt actors accountable, including “increasing support to grow the capacity of civil society, the media, state and local bodies, international partners, and other oversight and accountability actors”
- Improving foreign assistance, noting that the U.S. “partners with foreign governments and civil society to enhance the capacity of their domestic institutions to implement transparency, oversight, and accountability measures”
The president pledged that the U.S. will “lead by example” in the fight against corruption and said that “we must all stand in support of courageous citizens around the globe who are demanding honest, transparent governance.”
“Fighting corruption is not just good governance,” Biden said. “It is self-defense. It is patriotism, and it’s essential to the preservation of our democracy and our future.”