Colby Goodman
As the top firearms exporter, the United States faces significant challenges in trying to prevent the diversion or misuse of U.S. firearms around the world. In FY 2017, the State Department approved over $2.6 billion worth of firearms to over 100 countries. In many of these countries, including the Philippines, Honduras, UAE, there is a serious risk that U.S. firearms could be used to commit human rights violations against civilians and fuel conflict.
A report released today by the Center for International Policy’s Security Assistance Monitor finds that two-thirds of the recipients of U.S. counterterrorism aid pose serious corruption risks. The report indicates that these risks are due to corrupt practicies such as favortisim and nepotism, bribery, theft of defense resources, and drug, arms, oil, or human smuggling. These practices can undermine U.S. counterterrorism efforts by weakening U.S. partner military capabilities and motivation and by aiding financing and recruitment by violent extremist groups.
The United States has encountered serious challenges in building the capacity of foreign military and security forces to combat terrorist groups from corruption. In countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Mali, Nigeria, and Yemen, corruption was at the root of why counterterrorism efforts failed or stalled and why U.S. weapons and training were diverted or not used at all. But, where will the United States faces similar risks in the future, and how can the United States better mitigate these risks? Please join the below speakers to help answers these tough questions.
We are writing to express our concerns about the U.S. Department of Commerce’s proposed rule, published in the Federal Register on May 24, 2018, to transfer certain firearms, guns, ammunition, and related parts from the U.S. Department of State’s U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commerce Control List (CCL) under a new 500 series designation.
The number of U.S. foreign military trainees increased substantially from 79,865 trainees in FY 2015 to 128,280 trainees in FY 2016, according to the State Department’s recent U.S. “Foreign Military Training” reports.
Prepared remarks of SAM Director Colby Goodman at the "Global Anti-Corruption: Transparency in the Modern Age" symposium at the NYU Journal of International Law and Politics on October 17, 2017.
The number of US foreign military trainees increased substantially in FY 2015, growing from 56,346 in FY 2014 to 79,865 in FY 2015, according to a new Security Assistance Monitor (SAM) report released today on trends in US foreign military training. The report, which is based on an analysis of the US “Foreign Military Training” report released earlier this year, marks the highest number of US military trainees in any year since FY 2006.
U.S. arms sales deliveries jumped to more than $25 billion in FY 2015, increasing the total value of U.S. arms deliveries by at least $5 billion over recent years, according to latest data from several U.S. government reports.