Substantial budgetary discrepancies between President Trump's FY 2020 requests compared with previous years’ actual spending or appropriated funds makes clear the “winners and losers” in the White House’s foreign policy outlook.
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.
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.
The Trump Administration is continuing an unprecedented increase in U.S. foreign aid to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to address terrorist groups threats through the Defense and State Departments, according to a fact sheet released today by Security Assistance Monitor. The fact sheet highlights key new data on the Pentagon’s main global counterterrorism aid program (Section 1206/333).
Join leading experts in this event, which will seek to answer two main questions: 1) Are arms exports the best way to create jobs in the United States?; and 2) How should the administration and the Congress balance economic, strategic, and human rights factors to ensure that U.S. arms exports are serving U.S. and global security interests?