Organized crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism are recognized as global threats to civil society. However, until recently the international community often seemed oblivious to an equally insidious and related threat.
Corruption subverts democratic institutions and destroys the free market system.
For example, it transformed Colombia from Latin America's oldest Democracy into its first Narcocracy. Corruption paves the way for international economic catastrophes such as the Asian and Russian financial crises, and it produces economic turmoil as it has in Japan. Unwise and unsustainable economic policies were identified as causes for the spreading of global financial instability, and accountability, transparency and reform were urged by most speakers. Remarkably, the role of corruption as a driving force jeopardizing economies worldwide was barely mentioned. Most policy makers consider corruption too abstract to translate into a concrete foreign policy issue.