The Treasury Department Should Lead the Fight Against Corruption and Kleptocracy Getty/Robert Alexander A statue of Albert Gallatin, a former U.S. secretary of the Treasury, stands in front of the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., April 2018. Sam Hananel Introduction and summary The United States today faces a pressing threat to its national interests: the strategic use of corruption by autocratic and kleptocratic states to undermine the integrity of democratic institutions and interfere in the politics of democratic states for geopolitical advantage. Such strategic corruption is not a new phenomenon, but it has become more acute and sophisticated with the rise of offshore financial centers and the growing assertiveness of authoritarian competitors in using nontraditional means of projecting power and wielding influence. In recent years, strategic corruption has been deployed more systematically and with greater success against the United States and its democratic partners than in previous eras.