Review by Choice Review
This is a very powerful, moving, thoughtful, and probing exposé on corruption and global security. It is also a wonderfully written and compelling read. It is not, however, an academic treatise that can or should be treated as a scholarly work capable of building on the existing literature or adding something new to the body of knowledge in terms of being amenable to other rigorous research. This is not a criticism of the book per se, because it was not the goal of the author (who is not an academic) to "play professor." Rather, the book powerfully compares intensely diverse times and places to show how pervasive corruption is and why and how it has always been a threat to global security. More importantly, this work breaks down global North-South prejudicial myths that seem to make corruption a problem of other countries and not a concern of the so-called First World. The discussion of remedies at the end of the book lays out a blueprint for future scholars to take up in serious ways. Hopefully this will happen; otherwise the true potential of this work will remain unfulfilled. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Matthew D. Crosston, Bellevue University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by New York Times Review
THIEVES OF STATE: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, by Sarah Chayes. (Norton, $16.95.) Greed, cutting across businesses, governments and military organizations, has been a consistent obstacle to establishing stable democracies in a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the former Soviet Union. The author, a former journalist in Afghanistan and later an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also outlines how corrupt governments can create conditions primed for violent extremism. MAKING NICE, by Matt Sumell. (Picador, $16.) Over the course of this darkly funny debut collection, readers see Alby, an uncouth but tenderhearted antihero, turn to self-destruction to grieve his mother's death: He picks fights (especially with his own family), drinks too much and dips into his mother's stash of pain pills. But these stories show that the way out of grief is through connection with others. PUBLISHING: A Writer's Memoir, by Gail Godwin. (Bloomsbury, $16.) Godwin, the author of 14 novels, reflects on nearly five decades as a writer, and "the practices and preoccupations" that go along with the trade. Appearances by John Irving, Kurt Vonnegut and other literary stars lend a nostalgic tone to the memoir, but the book's driving force is Godwin's hunger to be published. THE JAGUAR'S CHILDREN, by John Vaillant. (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $14.95.) After trying to cross the border into the United States, Héctor is trapped inside a broken-down tanker truck with other migrants, abandoned by the smugglers tasked with delivering them. As hope and resources wane, Héctor sends a series of text messages to a contact he's never met, describing his journey from Oaxaca to the border, and trying to ensure his story is heard. These attempts form the framework for Vaillant's first novel. RAVENSBRÜCK: Life and Death in Hitler's Concentration Camp for Women, by Sarah Helm. (Anchor, $20.) Fifty miles north of Berlin, a concentration camp built for female prisoners was the site of executions, horrific medical experiments and beatings. Only a small number of prisoners were Jewish; others included prostitutes, Communists and aristocrats (Fiorello La Guardia's sister was imprisoned there for a time). THE DIVER'S CLOTHES LIE EMPTY, by Vendela Vida. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $14.99.) On a trip to Morocco, an unnamed narrator loses her passport and wallet, and is granted the opportunity to step into a new identity. As Fernanda Eberstadt wrote here, the novel "portrays with cool wit and suspense the explosive emancipation of a woman" poised "to grab some warmth, drama, magic for herself." MICHELLE OBAMA: A Life, by Peter Slevin. (Vintage, $17.) Slevin's thoughtful biography details the first lady's academic and professional accomplishments, and shows the farreaching effects of her childhood and loving, supportive parents; without their influence, "there might not now be a black first family in the White House," Amy Chozick said here.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 3, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Government corruption in the world's hot spots is often ignored at the expense of any real chance for peace, argues Chayes, former NPR correspondent and former advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Drawing on her experiences, Chayes asserts that kleptocratic governance acute and systemic public corruption is provoking insurgency in many parts of the world. She explores the day-to-day frustrations of citizens in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Egypt, and other nations, who can't get basic things done without paying bribes to government officials. Frustration often breeds insurgency as citizens see the Taliban or Boko Haram as agents to address the need for change. Chayes parallels current geopolitics with ancient practices and the philosophers who railed against corruption, including Machiavelli, John Locke, and Islamic statesman Nizam al-Mulk. She criticizes diplomats, reporters, NGO workers herself included for failing to expand their contacts beyond the usual sources to get a broader sense of public concerns over massive crimes committed under the imprimatur of government. From ancient tales of avaricious rulers to modern headlines of greedy politicians, Chayes offers insightful analysis of how government corruption invites instability and insurgency and why we will never see peace in some of the world's hot spots until we address that corruption.--Bush, Vanessa Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Chayes (Punishment of Virtue) argues here that corruption among foreign governments angers local populations and thereby undermines U.S. foreign policy. Framing the narrative using medieval and Renaissance texts from the genre known as "mirrors for princes," written in Europe and the Middle East as advice to new rulers, Chayes draws from her own experiences as a reporter and aid worker in Afghanistan to show what happens when populations grow disappointed in their own governments. Most illuminating, however, are Chayes's conversations with people living under corrupt regimes that range from Nigeria, which she says suffers from a "resource curse," to Afghanistan and Syria. As she finds, problems often arise when proxies or intermediaries are able to interpose themselves between governments and the people they govern. As a result, dissent grows at the same time that politics is removed as a means of redress. Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy, according to Chayes, tends to neglect the networks that foster corruption in favor of targeting individuals, or simply ignoring the issue altogether. Though she acknowledges homegrown American graft, she draws too little distinction between the corruption that greases wheels (such as congressional bills full of pork) and the corruption that actually disrupts progress. Nonetheless, scholars and CNN junkies alike should be intrigued by the issues Chayes brings up and impressed with the solutions she suggests. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Former NPR reporter and current Carnegie Foundation associate Chayes (The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban, 2006) offers an alarming account of the role played by acute government corruption in fostering violent extremism.The systemic corruption in Afghanistan will hardly surprise informed readers, but its extent and enormous adverse impact on American efforts there (and in other failed states) are "remarkably underappreciated." In her 10 years as a reporter and entrepreneur in Afghanistan, the author found that the government existed only to enrich the ruling elite. Within the carefully structured kleptocracy, money flowed upward via gifts, kickbacks and the purchase of positions. In return, those making payments were granted protection or permission to extract resources. Drawing on her intimate knowledge of Afghan life, Chayes argues convincingly that resentment over flagrant corruption drove many citizens to turn against the government and join the insurgency. At the same time, while pursuing flailing efforts to stem corruption (Chayes was an adviser on the issue), the U.S. passed millions of dollars to President Hamid Karzai (through the CIA), thereby enabling Afghanistan's kleptocracy. The author meanders considerably between her insightful observations as a reporter, as an NGO leader dedicated to rebuilding Afghanistan and as a participant in fruitless U.S. efforts to halt government corruption. Chayes weaves in many relevant quotations from Machiavelli, Erasmus and other Renaissance "mirror writers" who advised rulers to listen to their subjects and avoid acute public corruption that could destabilize the realm. She also shows how loss of confidence in corrupt rulers prompted the Arab Spring and revolts elsewhere. Much of her material is telling, but many readers will be annoyed by Chayes' tendency to jump around between countries and between events of the past and present. The author suggests remedies for dealing with acute corruption, noting that the political courage to act is often lacking. Scattershot but often insightful, disquieting reading for policymakers. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
