Colby Goodman
The United States invests over $15 billion in foreign military and police aid every year, but what are the risks when such aid accounts for a large percentage of foreign national defense budgets? The following image depicts the top ten countries most reliant on U.S. military aid in 2015 and some of the risks associated with such practices.
Challenging a longtime U.S. military critique of security assistance, some defense experts are saying suspending U.S. military aid to foreign security forces because of their poor human rights record has often caused an improvement in the force’s behavior.
On November 25, 2015, the President signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2016 (S. 1356) to authorize Defense Department programs and policies for next year. While renewing many previously created military aid funding authorities, this law authorizes four new military aid authorities or programs (see the asterisk for these authorities) worth a total $478 million. The legislation creates or extends several new military aid restrictions, policy statements, and reports. The new law also includes $5 billion in budgetary cuts after the President vetoed an earlier version of the bill submitted to him by Congress in October. The following table shows the key differences between this new law and earlier House and Senate passed bills.
The State Department’s Directorate for Defense Trade Controls has proposed a rule change that could loosen oversight of private security companies and exacerbate the problems we’ve seen with them.
This article was originally published in Lobeblog.
“We have seen what has happened, that the people were not in favor of it [coup d’état]. That is why we gave it up.” This was Gen. Gilbert Diendéré’s ad-libbed apology for the coup d’état he recently instigated in the West African country of Burkina Faso.
While guns trafficked into Mexico from U.S. stores and gun shows continue to be a blight on Mexico’s security landscape, the news about dozens of German assault rifles found near a major crime scene in Mexico last September highlight another way U.S. firearms could be fueling bloodshed in Mexico. If German firearms exported to Mexican states where corruption is rampant are fueling crime, to what extent are U.S.-government approved firearms exports to Mexico doing the same?