Somehow I think that I was always destined to write about corruption (see Chapter 1). This has been an unintended project starting with some brief discussions of corruption in my 2002 book, The Moral Foundations of Trust, and in a few papers that stemmed from it. An invitation to a conference on corruption in 2002 at the University of Göttingen – sponsored by Transparency International – led me to think more seriously about writing about corruption. Over the next five years, this project took many unexpected turns, even as I thought I had completed the research.

One thing that hasn't changed is my overall framework, despite many challenges to my argument and the challenge of applying the framework to cases that I had not considered when I started. Some of these detours (especially Hong Kong and Singapore) came about because wise people challenged me; others came about as I read popular accounts of corruption (Africa) and saw my framework reflected in these stories. Along the way, I have had the good fortune to have friends and colleagues who posed tough questions to me, often as the “price” for inviting me to many interesting places throughout the world – where people were always more than willing to share their stories of corruption with me (some of which I have retold here).