The Foreign Service Journal, January 2010

private-sector experts, including the vice-chairman of the U.S.-China Eco- nomic and Security Review Commis- sion, addressed the state of efforts to defend against cyberattacks; explored the appropriate balance between im- proving cybersecurity and protecting the privacy rights and civil rights of cit- izens; and discussed the proper role of government in setting standards for the private sector and taking control of the Internet or computer systems in an emergency. Meanwhile, the Arms Control Asso- ciation suggests that it may be time to consider an international convention on cyberwarfare. In the November issue of Arms Control Today , Stanford Uni- versity security expert David Elliott re- views the background to this idea, suggests how an agreement might re- strict cyberattacks by one state-party against the critical national infrastruc- ture of another, and examines the pros and cons of such restrictions from a U.S. perspective. Shining a Light in Dark Corners “Over $1 trillion in bribes are paid annually, with $1.5 trillion in public purchasing tainted by bribery, fraud, collusion and other forms of corrup- tion. Every year, billions of dollars in il- licit assets — equivalent to almost half of all development assistance funds — flows out of countries desperately in need,” states the U.S. chapter of Trans- parency International. Calling for “a consistent and coherent attack on cor- ruption” by U.S. foreign policy and its development assistance programs, the organization urges Washington to in- tensify its partnership with foreign gov- ernments to enhance oversight institu- tions. TI’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that the practice is as ram- pant as ever around the world. “Over- all results in the 2009 index are of great concern because corruption continues to lurk where opacity rules, where in- stitutions still need strengthening and where governments have not imple- mented anticorruption frameworks,” said TI in a statement. Somalia is at the bottom of the list, rankedmost corrupt, with Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq not far be- hind. Conversely, New Zealand, Den- mark, Sweden and Singapore — countries with political stability, long- established conflict of interest regula- tions and functioning public institutions — are at the top of the list of the least corrupt. The U.S. ranked 19th. But TI cautions the advanced, least corrupt countries against complacency, pointing out that the practice of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in their coun- tries. “Financial secrecy jurisdictions, linked to many countries that top the CPI, severely undermine efforts to tackle corruption and recover stolen as- sets,” the survey notes. That’s why TI complements the index with research and advocacy on the “supply side” of global corruption, including a Bribe Payers Index, Na- tional Integrity System studies and a new annual report tracking trans- parency inmeasures to combat corrup- tion at some 500 leading companies. The group’s latest publication is a re- port on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s anti- bribery convention that finds its en- forcement extremely uneven. Democracy in Decline? “Although the number of formal democracies remains constant world- wide, in many cases their quality is showing a significant decline.” This is the conclusion reached by the fourth survey of the Transformation Index, a study released Dec. 3 by the Bertels- mann Stiftung, Germany’s largest pri- vate nonprofit foundation. Among the countries with the most successful governance over the past few years, the survey cites Uruguay, Chile, Estonia, South Korea and Brazil. Those identified as having the worst political leadership are North Korea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Somalia and Uzbekistan. Though nearly four billion people live in democracies today, compared with only 2.5 billion in autocracies and dictatorships, a cautionary note lies in the fact that among the democracies social integration and opportunities for real participation in the political deci- sion-making process are, inmany cases, increasingly limited. Of the 76 democracies studied, as many as 53 are classified as “defective democracies” because, despite rela- tively free and fair elections, they fail to adequately protect political and civil liberties and lack an effective separa- tion of powers. Significantly, the share of moderately defective democracies has dropped from 62 percent to about 49 percent over the past four years, 10 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 0 C Y B E R N O T E S P eople are questioning why he has not already solved the world’s problems. But the whole point of [President Barack] Obama’s campaign was that the power and responsibility to change the world is distributed. — British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, addressing the Fabian Society in London, Nov. 7, www.fabians.org.uk/