BridgeGap team member Lucio Picci, together with Lorenzo Crippa and Edmund J. Malesky, has co-authored a new article in Foreign Affairs titled “How Washington Is Weaponizing Anticorruption Law.”
The piece examines how U.S. anticorruption enforcement — historically presented as neutral and rule-based — is increasingly being used as a strategic policy instrument in international economic and geopolitical competition.
The article argues that anticorruption laws are no longer operating solely as neutral, technical instruments designed to uphold integrity. Instead, they are increasingly embedded in the dynamics of global power. Enforcement choices — such as which cases are pursued, against whom, and with what intensity — can shape international competition, influence corporate strategies, and affect relations between states.
Thus, anticorruption enforcement can function as a subtle tool of economic statecraft. Decisions taken by regulators may alter market opportunities, redirect investment flows, or disadvantage particular firms and jurisdictions, even when formally justified on legal grounds. At the same time, the growing perception that enforcement can be selective or strategically motivated risks weakening the credibility that once made anticorruption law so influential worldwide.
More broadly, the authors suggest that the era in which anticorruption policy could be seen as largely technocratic and politically neutral is coming to an end. What is emerging instead is a more contested environment, where integrity rules remain essential but are increasingly intertwined with geopolitical competition and struggles over economic advantage.