Fighting on Quicksand: How Corruption Weakens State Capacity in War

This paper explores whether corruption negatively affects the outcomes of interstate conflicts. Applying quantitative methods on about 200 years of data suggests that more corrupt countries are less likely to win interstate wars and more likely to suffer a higher ratio of combat losses in those wars. The rot of corruption thus likely affects one of the main duties of the state: public defense. Received: 09-02-2024 Revised: 09-27-2024