Abstract This article serves as an introduction to the special issue of the Public Integrity Journal dedicated to strategic corruption. The authors introduce the concept of strategic corruption, understanding it as a conceptualization of the geostrategic dimensions of transnational corruption that aims to achieve subversion of the political and economic processes of a country. Before presenting each of the contributions to the special issue, the authors introduce the epistemic development and the interdisciplinary potential of the concept, delineating it from similar concepts of hybrid warfare, corrosive capital, and foreign interference. The authors recognize the limitations and the critique offered against such conceptualization, as well as the turnaround of U.S. foreign policy under the Trump administration that has sought to reverse the practical approaches underlying the measures to combat transnational corruption adopted under the 2021 U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. However, the authors advocate the view that the strategic approach to transnational corruption has been vindicated precisely by the measures that the Trump administration adopted in 2025; the dilution of the U.S. anti-corruption approach which may produce global ramifications. PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY This article introduces a group of articles focused on “strategic corruption” in the journal Public Integrity. The authors explain that strategic corruption is when countries use corruption as a tool to influence or undermine the politics and economy of other countries, not just for personal gain but to achieve bigger national goals. This kind of corruption is often planned, long-term, and involves networks that cross borders. It can include things like bribing politicians, funding political movements, or using business deals to gain control over important resources in another country. The authors also discuss how the idea of strategic corruption is different from related terms like “hybrid warfare” or “foreign interference.” They point out that, while some people criticize this concept, it is useful for understanding how some governments use corruption as a weapon in international relations. The paper notes that U.S. policy on fighting corruption changed under President Trump. The Trump administration paused enforcement of some of the key anti-corruption laws, arguing that these laws hurt American businesses competing abroad. The authors argue that this shift could weaken global efforts to fight corruption and may have serious consequences for international security and democracy. In summary, the paper says that understanding and addressing strategic corruption is important because it is a growing threat to fair politics and global stability

In this paper, I investigate the attempts of the European Union to promote and entrench the rule of law standards in the Western Balkans countries. I examine the failures of legal reforms in key policy areas, such as the regulations of judicial independence, the legislative branch of government, vetting and suppression of corruption, that prevent progress in achieving the rule of law standards. I demonstrate how a narrow focus on the judiciary and its performance has harmed the standards. I propose a more specific focus on socio–economic reforms that, at first glance, appear less relevant to the rule of law. These are: higher education reforms, digitalization, decarbonization, and better targeting of anti-corruption measures. More focus on these areas allows a refocusing from a narrow conception of rule of law to other good governance reforms.

This article examines the recent trends in whistleblowing regulation, analysing the issue of financial rewards as one of the key distinctions between the legislative solutions on the matter in the United States as compared to European jurisdictions. Using the lens of corruption theories, the article concludes that the usage of financial rewards increases the overall regulatory capacity of the state to reduce corruption and fraud and reduce the emerging, largely anonymous digital whistleblowing. The financial rewards are also, due to the peculiar nature of both corruption and whistleblowing, an adequate tool to help to quantify the effects of whistleblowing. The article argues that the introduction of financial rewards should not be viewed as dependent on the differences in the legal traditions or culture but on the quality of the institutions and their ability to assess the reports of the whistleblowers. The article offers considerations concerning the conditions for the introduction of financial rewards.

This article evaluates the role that the economic conditionality of the European Union (EU) toward the six Western Balkan countries may play in the transformation of these countries as a part of their EU accession process. The article is a case study of a temporary policy shift that occurred in 2014 in relation to conditions that Bosnia and Herzegovina must fulfill to qualify for opening negotiations on EU membership. It also aims to address what this shift has achieved for the Europeanization of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its progress towards EU accession. The shift, implemented via an economic plan called the Reform Agenda, was an attempt at Europeanization of the country’s economic policies that temporarily put aside the constitutional reform demands that had previously dominated the Europeanization discourse. After the first five years of the Reform Agenda, moderate gains primarily in the domain of economic development and fiscal stability were made; however, political fragmentation and nationalistic and secessionist ideas have prevented the reforms from making a stronger impact. Additionally, the lack of a defined desired outcome in terms of measurable economic reforms and the inadequate planning by the EU were not conducive to a more transformative impact.

This paper deals with the failures in the promotion of the rule of law in the six countries of the Western Balkans that are in different stages of their EU accession process. Drawing on concrete examples from more than two decades of rule of law promotion through the enlargement circles, the paper identifies the different evolutionary stages of this undertaking. It finds that the current dominant paradigm of rule of law conditionality concerning the benchmarking of progress in the areas of Chapters 23 and 24 of the acquis fails to tackle state capture as the main structural obstacle to the rule of law in the Western Balkans. The paper proposes that this situation is to be improved by re-imagining rule of law promotion as an effort focused not merely on standards but on building a rule of law constituency. Four different approaches to rule of law promotion that have been less frequently used so far are offered: legal mobilisation, institutional strengthening, the politicisation of anti-corruption, and economic development. The paper concludes with reflections on the realistic reach of the proposed interventions into efforts to promote the rule of law, arguing that while imperfect they remain necessary in order for the project to succeed. Keywords: European Union, rule of law promotion, Western Balkans, corruption, economic development.   This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution − Non-Commercial − No Derivatives 4.0 International License.   Suggested citation: N Hogic, ‘The European Union’s Rule of Law Promotion in the Western Balkans: Building a Rule of Law Constituency’ (2020) 16 CYELP 197.