Thompson ’59 Discusses International Corruption

Mr. William Thompson ’59, an Adjunct Professor of International Politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, addressed the Phillips Academy community about international corruption on Wednesday in an event cosponsored by Phillips Academy’s International Relations Symposium (PAIRS) and the Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA.) Mr. Thompson explained that “corruption is ever changing” and that what constitutes corruption today is “not the same as yesterday.” Although corruption is most prevalent in developing nations, Mr. Thompson provided several examples of corruption present in such industrialized nations as Great Britain and the United States. According to Mr. Thompson, corruption can be categorized under four main categories: teacup, political, big state, and big state destruction. Mr. Thompson explained that teacup corruption, which is the most harmless of the four types, includes such practices as giving gifts to teachers or paying off customs and immigration officers in order to ease and expedite the process of entering a foreign country. Sharing a recent personal encounter of teacup corruption, Mr. Thompson described an event in which a police officer in the Philippines stopped him on the highway and told him that his driving permit would be invalid unless he attended a three-week driving school. Political corruption involves donations from interest groups to politicians and others who hold power in government. According to Thompson, political corruption is the most common form of corruption in the United States. The final two categories of corruption, big state and big state destruction corruption, differ from teacup and political corruption in that they not only benefit those parties directly involved but also pose negative consequences to third parties. Mr. Thomas used the example of Indonesian President Suharto stealing an estimated $30 billion from various sources within Indonesia during his nearly decade long dictatorship as a prime illustration. Clarifying the distinction between big state corruption and big state destruction corruption, Mr. Thomas explained that big state destruction corruption occurs when dictators and other officials in positions of power modify processes and infrastructures for purposes of personal benefit. Mr. Thomas, who currently serves as chairman of UTICO, an international partnership that retrieves purloined assets for governments, has held four presidential appointments within the United States government, including Assistant to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. UTICO has most recently been involved in the freezing and retrieving of approximately one billion dollars of Ukrainian funds for the government of Kiev. Mr. Thomas concluded by saying that “in this world, all corruption counts. When leaders are corrupt, you know it and when they aren’t corrupt, you also know it.”