This post is cross-posted with Adam Isacson's personal blog. The original can be read here.
I wrote the text below in a follow-up email to some congressional staff with whom I’d met last week. It occurred to me, though, that it might be helpful to share it more widely than that.
There are only three U.S. programs that specifically pay for counter-drug aid in Latin America. Together, though, they make up about 81% of all U.S. military/police...
This week the Associated Press uncovered that USAID tried to "trigger a Cuban Spring" through a secretly-established social media platform, the DEA said Mexican cartels were setting up shop in Colorado and Washington to cash in on black market marijuana, and the United States stopped sharing radar intelligence with Honduras. Here's a roundup of these stories and other highlights from around the region over the past week.
The U.S. State Department recently restated their support for the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somali National Security Services. According to the release, “the United States has obligated over $512 million since 2007 to support AMISOM, and over $171 million to build a more effective and professional Somali National Army.” Combined, this total reflects the level of U.S. aid to Somalia through the Peacekeeping Operations (PKO) program.
U.S. lawmakers and other officials have been heavily engaged in the MENA region this week, crafting legislation on Iran as the next round of nuclear negotiations approaches, threatening to cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority as peace talks stall, discussing future security cooperation with Israel and the Gulf states, and considering security matters with Algerian officials in Algiers.
United States Policy:
- Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) are ...
Secretary Kerry stressed security cooperation against terrorism while in Algeria and Morocco this week, while the United States trained several African partner security forces in intelligence, peacekeeping and disaster relief. Read about these stories and other security news in the region this week:
The main security and political alliances in the region held high-level meetings this week to prepare for NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, while NATO-Russian cooperation on Afghan security operations felt the consequences of the crisis in Crimea.