U.S. President Joe Biden launched a new initiative last month to focus the government on the fight against corruption, a struggle he called “essential to the preservation of our democracy and our future.” The stakes are indeed high, and Biden was right to commit to working with partners abroad, because stopping graft in one country often depends on other nations lending a hand.
Nowhere is this dynamic clearer than in South Africa, where a broad effort to end a sordid chapter of official corruption has led to former President Jacob Zuma being jailed for refusing to testify on the matter. A key piece of the country’s reckoning depends, though, on whether its partners from the United Arab Emirates to the United States will act to help bring justice in another high-profile corruption case—one that highlights the importance and elusiveness of international cooperation.
