On September 10, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley convened a special panel of the United Nations Security Council to address an important—if surprising—topic: the threat corruption poses to global peace and security. “For all the time we spend here discussing conflict,” Ambassador Haley remarked , “we hardly ever talk about how corruption fuels the instability, violence, and criminal activity that put countries on our agenda.” Haley, who, as the U.S. Permanent Representative holds the rotating title of President of the Security Council this month, warned of the costs of inaction. She invoked the Tunisian anti-corruption protests that sparked the Arab Spring, the extreme kleptocracy of ousted Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych, and the resource-driven civil war in South Sudan as examples of unintended consequences when the security council has a “head-in-the-sand approach” to corruption.
The above excerpt was originally published in The National Interest.
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