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US Boosts Foreign Military Aid to Promote Global Clout
[Strategic Culture Foundation]The US return to Asia, boosting the number of exercises and military presence in the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East involvement and drone strikes, the gradual intensification of efforts to reinvigorate the African policy all are the issues in focus. Training, assisting, and subsidizing armed forces of other countries is another significant aspect of US foreign policy, which is often overlooked or underestimated. But it is an important tool used to strengthen the countrys global clout. The last Quadrennial Defense Review report, which saw light in 2010, puts great emphasis on military-to-military coordination The US has a vast number of military training and assistance missions globally; it is the largest world contributor of military aid to foreign countries, providing some form of assistance to over 150 countries in 2013. It was 134 in 2012, or 75 percent of the states on the planet Earth. There has been almost zero discussion of how military assistance is organized and how effective it is. The administration requested $9.8 billion in security assistance funding for fiscal year 2013 against the background of sequester. There are three main programs designed for foreign military aid: - Foreign military financing for the acquisition of U.S. defense equipment, services, and training; - Peacekeeping operations provide voluntary support for international peacekeeping activities; - The International Military Education and Training program (IMET) offers military training on a grant basis to foreign military officials. To avoid problems with Congress, inclined to blacklist the states with poor human rights record, the Department of Defense also uses other, less transparent, programs. For example, the Joint Combined Exercises and Training (JCET) program has allowed special operations forces to train Indonesian troops used to oppress the population of East Timor, as well as those of many other repressive states, under the pretext of providing U.S. soldiers with training in foreign terrain. They also train African soldiers in "peacekeeping" under the African Crisis Response Initiative. Today the U.S. Special Forces are operating in over 70 countries. Lengthy article follows: Posted by: Besoeker 2013-07-07 |
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