Policy Memo: Pathways from Corruption to Destabilisation

Corruption poses a serious threat to international peace and security because it protracts armed conflict, fuels violence, undermines military preparedness, and erodes public trust.

At the 2025 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development, Transparency International Defence and Security (TI-DS) and the Centre for Sustainable Peace and Democratic Development (SeeD) co-organised a workshop in which they explored different tools and methodologies that can inform programming, policy, and practice by:

• identifying and using perceptions of corruption as an early warning sign of fragility, and
• assessing the resilience of national defence institutions to corruption risks.

The workshop showed how corruption in defence and security has significant destabilising effects on communities and societies because protection and security provision are at the core of state responsibility and the basis of a fair and sustainable social contract. We then explored creative and integrated approaches to address corruption in a high insecurity context, learning from experiences of the UN Office of the Resident Coordinator in Nigeria.

Read our policy memo compiling the key takeaways and recommendations from the workshop.