Thieves of State

Why Corruption Threatens Global Security

By: Sarah Chayes

Narrated by: Sarah Chayes

A former adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff explains how government's oldest problem is its greatest destabilizing force. Thieves of State argues that corruption is not just a nuisance; it is a major source of geopolitical turmoil. Since the late 1990s, corruption has grown such that some governments now resemble criminal gangs, provoking extreme reactions ranging from revolution to militant puritanical religion.

Through intensive firsthand reporting, Sarah Chayes explores the security implications of corruption throughout our world: Afghans returning to the Taliban, Egyptians overthrowing the Mubarak government - but also redesigning Al Qaeda - and Nigerians embracing both evangelical Christianity and Islamist terrorist groups like Boko Haram. The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Canonical political thinkers such as John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the great medieval Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption as a threat to the realm.

In a thrilling argument that connects the Protestant Reformation to the Arab Spring, Chayes asserts that we cannot afford not to attack corruption, for it is a cause, and not a result, of global instability.

©2015 Sarah Chayes (P)2015 Recorded Books

best book I have ever read!

Sarah Chayes offers a highly textured and highly contextualized account of corruption in the world. She is wise, clear, and courageous. Thank gou so much for this masterpiece!

The real swamp

This is a book that will challenge you to rethink what corruption is and how it influences revolutionary and even religious extremists as well as modern Western democracies. The author was a journalist on assignment in Afghanistan but gave that up for a chance to not just write about problems but be a part of solving them. She began working with a non-profit in Afghanistan and eventually became an advisor to the US government development efforts. Because of her many years in Afghanistan and her experiences, a significant portion of the book deals with Afghanistan, but she also discusses disparate places such as the countries across North Africa, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, and others. She posits that the American view that the Afghan government is weak and must be supported militarily overlooks the real problem, that the government is actually very strong but is not designed to govern. It is designed as a vertically oriented criminal enterprise with money flowing to the top. It’s not a patronage system where the leaders preserve power by paying off those below, but where those below, beginning at the very bottom, pay just a little to their immediate superiors to keep their jobs and they pay some to their superiors and on up the chain. The US has thought that providing security is a precursor to good government, but she would say that good government is what actually provides security. She also goes back into historical writings ranging from ancient Muslim scholars, to Machiavelli, Martin Luther, and John Locke. Her basic thesis is that while not the only threat, corruption is the most important threat to world security and the prime mover of revolutionary movements. It is when people lose faith in public institutions and decide that anything is better than the status quo. They will then follow anyone who gives a promise to clean up the system. And, in the end, she shows that corruption is not limited to developing countries and notes that the big US financial collapse in 2008 was due to corruption and notes that though some financial institutions went under, most were bailed out and no significant person was prosecuted. The fear of the American democratic experiment in the beginning was that corruption would take root and give opening to a strong man taking power. I was reminded of the famous response by Benjamin Franklin concerning the result of the constitutional discussions, so what were they creating? His answer, “A republic if you can keep it.” This book was published in 2015, but seems to have presaged what we are facing today, when people are willing to overlook the checks and balances built into our system of government in order to get things done. I’ll go back to the first sentence of this review and repeat that this book will challenge your thinking about corruption and the state of American politics. The swamp is not political, per se. It’s the influence of money floating to the top of the chain, where no one can reach political office without money and lots of it. You either get it by becoming beholden to lots of donors, or by being very rich yourself. This is a book that you need to read.

Excellent book if you want knowledge

This book was given to me to listen to. If you want a good book on how governments around the world and even this government works, think corruption.

Clear explanation of the impact corruption

The book is relatively short, but contains some interesting idea of the importance that corruption has in disrupting and undermining the social fabric of societies. Fairness is the glue that keeps a community together. It is melting like the polar icecap.

TIRESOME REVELATION

“Thieves of State” is a tiresome revelation by an author one admires for confronting state sanctioned corruption, but denies her argued etiology for corruption’s existence. Unquestionably, Hamid Karzai and his administration were corrupt during the ten years of his presidency. There is ample proof of corruption in Afghanistan; certainly during Karzai’s administration, and probably still today. Interestingly, Sarah Chayes reveals that Karzai’s corruption is abetted by America’s own CIA.As Chayes notes, Mubarak’s government in Egypt was comparably corrupt, and probably is still corrupt. Chayes ten years in Afghanistan and her ability to speak Arabic offer tremendous credibility to her observations. However, her suggestion that corruption threatens global security is tiresome because “Thieves of State” exist in all forms of government, including the United States.

Listening to “Thieves of State” is tiresome because America lives in a glass house. If America makes the mistake of invading Iraq or throwing money at the Afghanistan economy, it is only we Americans who are to blame. It is not the fault of Afghani or Iraqi corruption. It is the fault of an outside country interfering in a society and choosing not to invest in understanding that society. If one does not speak Arabic, one has little chance of understanding Arabic culture.

Respectfully, Chayes invested her time in understanding Afghanistan which puts her far and away ahead of most Americans but she misses the root cause of corruption which is unregulated human nature. That is why many countries that have poor government regulation turn to religion. If a secular government cannot regulate human nature, Taliban-like tyrannies fill the vacuum with public executions or Mullah’ Dictates. Neither secular nor religious governance is a guarantee of perfect human justice, equality, or equity. Justice, equality, and equity must come from the desire of indigenous populations.