A former adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff points out how government’s oldest problem is its best destabilizing force. Thieves of State argues that problem is not just a nuisance; it is a major way to obtain geopolitical turmoil. Since the past due 1990s, corruption is continuing to grow in a way that some government authorities now resemble legal gangs, provoking extreme reactions which range from revolution to militant puritanical religious beliefs. Through rigorous firsthand reporting, Sarah Chayes explores the security about Thieves of Condition: Why Problem Threatens Global Protection implications of corruption throughout the 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 organizations like Boko Haram. The pattern, moreover, pervades history. Canonical politics thinkers such as for example John Locke and Machiavelli, as well as the fantastic middle ages Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk, all named corruption being a threat to the realm. In a thrilling argument that attaches the Protestant Reformation towards the Arab Springtime, Chayes asserts that we cannot afford not to attack corruption, for this is a cause, and not a result, of global instability.