Resumen de Strategic corruption: Why Democratic Decline Is a Security Threat

Garvan Walsch

• Globalisation has opened Western economies to influence and investment by authoritarian states like Russia and China. States with strong legal and democratic institutions are able to defend against them by applying the rule of law, investigating corruption, and limiting the extent to which elected and appointed officials can work for authoritarian governments after they leave office. However, countries that have begun to weaken or dismantle democratic institutions also undermine checks and balances against this foreign-authoritarian, or ‘strategic’ corruption opening up a new vector for authoritarian influence in the EU. This paper suggests ways EU institutions can be strengthened to mitigate this risk and argues these should be organised specifically as measures against authoritarian influence rather than foreign influence per se.