United States security cooperation, also known as security assistance or building partner capacity, is a large and growing tool in the Obama administration’s foreign policy toolbox.
The logic behind providing security assistance is simple: provide weapons and/or training to foreign militaries and police forces in hopes that they will able to confront domestic and international security threats.
Counterterrorism security assistance, in particular, has taken on a special role recently as the U.S. draws down full-scale troop deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the reliance on this type of aid, however, it presents many long-term challenges.
Through this militarized aid, the U.S. often allies itself with repressive governments and human rights abusers. U.S. security assistance has gone to support military officers who went on to stage coups and to police that work to undermine, rather than support, peace and security. Although some of this assistance goes to non-military programs that help communities heal and grow, all too often the U.S. is training the very forces that are fueling violent extremism.
