The Center for International Policy Announces the New Security Assistance Monitor Program
On October 20, 2014, the Center for International Policy (CIP) launched Security Assistance Monitor, a new program and web-resource that will track U.S. military and police assistance and arms sales with a focus on Africa, Central Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East.
This new initiative will provide U.S. policymakers, media, scholars and civil society (in the U.S. and abroad) with important data and analysis for a more informed debate about U.S. foreign security assistance.
“Over the past decade, the U.S. government has greatly expanded its investment in security assistance and its involvement in the security sectors of other countries, but where are the dollars going; what is the effect on the security of the recipient; and is it buying us relationships that are big trouble downstream?” said Gordon Adams, a former Clinton administration budget official. “As we give more and more of this responsibility to the Pentagon, we don’t know the answers to these questions. Accountability starts with transparency, and the Security Assistance Monitor is a big step forward in filling that hole in our knowledge.”
The new Security Assistance Monitor website and associated database provides the public with the most complete information available on U.S. foreign military and police assistance from many disparate and hard-to-get official sources. Below are a few examples of facts one can find on the website and database:
- How many countries in the world received U.S. counterterrorism assistance under the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program in FY 2012? 171
- What was the total amount of U.S. counternarcotics assistance provided to Sub-Saharan Africa in FY 2012? $79.8 million
- Under the Defense Department’s Section 1206 security assistance program, what was the ratio of U.S.-provided equipment versus training to Yemen in FY 2013? $45.4 million versus $565,000
- How many different programs did the United States use to provide security assistance to Uzbekistan from FY 2002 to FY 2013? 16
- What was the total amount of Defense Department-funded security assistance to Central America in FY 2012? $48.5 million
“The Security Assistance Monitor database provides critical data and information about U.S. foreign security assistance so that policymakers, journalists, academics, and the American public can better understand where our assistance is going,” said Abigail Poe, the Deputy Director of CIP and Director of Security Assistance Monitor.
The new Security Assistance Monitor program will also conduct research and analysis and organize briefings on key issues and questions about U.S. security assistance. Today, Security Assistance Monitor published its first country profile on U.S. security assistance to Yemen, which provides an overview of U.S. security assistance to Yemen and the key challenges to such assistance, see http://www.securityassistance.org/our-work/publications.
For more information about Security Assistance Monitor, please visit http://www.securityassistance.org/content/contact-us or e-mail sam@ciponline.org.