It gathers data on more than 60 indicators (the extent of crime, the quality of police, judicial independence and so on) to create rule-of-law and governance measures for virtually every country in the world.

ECONOMIST: Economics and the rule of law

But McKinsey's latest research on board governance in the United States indicates that directors and investors alike feel that, so far, reform has led to only modest improvement.

FORBES: A New Era In Corporate Governance

Because one of the reasons Greeks remain so wedded to the euro project is the international guarantee of governance it provides: a check and balance on crooked politicians.

BBC: Will Europe let the Greek political centre fall?

It seems, therefore, that the time is ripe to apply to the terror-enablers the divestment campaign techniques that proved so effective in South Africa - and, for that matter, with respect to bringing about change on such issues as corporate governance and accountability and companies' policies towards tobacco, environmental issues and so-called "sin" stocks.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Divest terror

So our position on this, Jake, is that when the Afghan leaders take steps to improve governance and root out corruption, then the President will say kind words.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefings

If he is right, in many non-state firms the dangers of poor governance will increasingly be eclipsed by the perils posed by government, in terms of licence revocations, access to pipelines and so on not to mention, as Yukos discovered, surprise tax bills.

ECONOMIST: Who Vladimir Putin trusts to run Russian business