Matter of time before corrupt cop jails international (5)
I believe the answer is:
topic
'matter' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'time before corrupt cop jails international' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'before' says to put letters next to each other.
'corrupt' indicates anagramming the letters.
'jails' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are kept or jailed).
'international' becomes 'i' (abbreviation eg in IMF).
'cop' is an anagram of 'opc'.
'opc' enclosing 'i' is 'opic'.
't'+'opic'='TOPIC'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for topic that I've seen before include "Issue (for discussion)" , "Matter for an argument" , "Subject (eg, of text)" , "Theme (of, eg, a talk)" , "Subject (of, eg, speech)" .)