The military's growing foreign aid role: a bibliography
Over the past few years, Congress has acceded to several Defense Department requests to use its own budget to provide military assistance, something that it was not legally able to do on its own after 1961, when the Foreign Assistance Act became law.
The result has been a profusion of Pentagon-budget programs that provide military aid very similar to what is already provided through the foreign aid budget. The difference is that these new Defense Department programs have less (or sometimes no) involvement from the State Department; little or no oversight from the congressional foreign relations and foreign-aid committees; fewer legal restrictions on their use, including human rights restrictions; and greater obstacles to obtaining information about their use, due to lighter public reporting requirements.
Examples of such Defense Department programs on the "Just the Facts" website include "Section 1004" Counter-Drug Assistance (begun in 1991, the second-largest source of military and police aid to the region this year), the Regional Defense Counter-Terrorism Fellowship Program (begun in 2003, the fourth-largest trainer of personnel from the region), and the "Section 1206" Train and Equip Authority (begun in 2006, the fourth-largest source of aid this year). (See a full list.)
The Defense Department has made clear its desire to increase these programs' scope and to make them permanent. The result in the past two years has been an increasing debate about the Pentagon's greater role in foreign assistance, and about the military's growing foreign policy role in general.
Here is a bibliography of links to some of the key documents in what is still a very new debate.
Congress:
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July 31, 2008: Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Defining the Military's Role Towards Foreign Policy"
- Rough hearing transcript (voice-recognition, from CSPAN)
- Audio [MP3] and Video [streaming]
- [PDF] Statement of Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Delaware)
- [PDF] Statement of Committee Ranking Minority Member Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana)
- [PDF] Testimony of Deputy Secretary of State John D. Negroponte
- [PDF] Testimony of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman
- [PDF] Testimony of George Rupp, CEO and President, International Rescue Committee
- [PDF] Testimony of Reuben E. Brigety II, Director of the Sustainable Security Program, Center for American Progress
- [PDF] Testimony of Mary Locke, Former Senior Professional Staff, Committee on Foreign Relations
- [PDF] Testimony of Robert M. Perito, Senior Program Officer, Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations, United States Institute of Peace
- April 15, 2008: House Armed Services Committee hearing on "Building Partnership Capacity and Development of the Interagency Process"
- March 6, 2008: "Defense Secretary Gates Discusses U.S. Foreign Policy Budget Imbalance with Committee Members," House Foreign Affairs Committee Press Release
- [PDF] November 16, 2007: "Embassies Grapple to Guide Foreign Aid," Ranking Minority Member Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), Senate Foreign Relations Committee
- [PDF] February 28, 2007: "Section 1206 Security Assistance Program - Findings on Criteria, Coordination and Implementation," Government Accountability Office
- [PDF] December 15, 2006: "Embassies As Command Posts in the Anti-Terror Campaign," Chairman Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana), Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Defense Department:
- July 15, 2008: Speech of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates before U.S. Global Leadership Campaign, Washington
- [PDF] June 2008: "Command Strategy 2018," United States Southern Command
- [PDF] February 2008: "DOD FY 2009 Budget Request Summary Justification - Special Topics" (See pages 37-43.)
- [PDF] 2008: "Section 1206 of the National Defense Authorization Act - Fiscal Year 2008 Guidance"
- [PDF] 2007: "Section 1206 Programs for Fiscal Years 2006 and 2007"
- [PDF] March 2007 PowerPoint presentation from Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, director for Strategic Plans and Policy, the Joint Staff
- [PDF] March 2006 PowerPoint presentation from Thomas W. O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict.
State Department:
Other U.S. Government:
- [PDF] December 2007: Beyond Assistance: The HELP Commission Report on Foreign Assistance Reform
Non-Governmental Organizations and Think-Tanks:
- [PDF] May 2008: "The Benefits of Augmented Civilian Capacity," by Suzanne Nossel and David Shorr, the Stanley Foundation and the Center for a New American Security
- [PDF] March 2008: "Ready, Aim, Foreign Policy," by the Center for International Policy, the Latin America Working Group Education Fund, and the Washington Office on Latin America
- [PDF] February 27, 2008: Letter from 20 national organizations requesting hearings on militarization of U.S. foreign assistance
- February 11, 2008: "The Pentagon as a Development Agency? Q&A with Stewart Patrick," Center for Global Development
- [PDF] January 18, 2008: "Integrating 21st Century Development and Security Assistance," Task Force on Non-Traditional Security Assistance, Center for Strategic and International Studies
- [PDF] November 2007: "The Pentagon and Global Development: Making Sense of the DoD’s Expanding Role," by Stewart Patrick and Kaysie Brown, Center for Global Development
- November 3, 2007: "At War But Not War-Ready," by Hans Binnendijk, National Defense University, The Washington Post
- May 14, 2006: "U.S. Military Aid: The Pentagon's Role Keeps Growing," Center for International Policy
Press:
- August 4, 2008: "How Foreign Policy Functions Shifted to the Pentagon," by Walter Pincus, The Washington Post
- July 16, 2008: "Gates Warns of Militarized Policy," by Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post
- July 1, 2008: "Expending Diplomacy: How Much of the Pentagon Budget Goes to Foreign Militaries?" by Allen McDuffee, AlterNet
- April 16, 2008: "More Leeway Sought on Foreign Aid Spending," by Ann Scott Tyson, The Washington Post
- July 9, 2007: "Taking Defense's Hand Out of State's Pocket," by Walter Pincus, The Washington Post
- April 30, 2007: "Pentagon, State struggle to define nation-building roles," by Corine Hegland, National Journal