The US Defense Department has gained an inordinate amount of influence over the distribution of security assistance in Central Asia, exerting an “oversized impact” on US foreign policy in the region, according to a report released October 15.
The report, titled US Military Aid to Central Asia 1999-2009: Security Priorities Trump Human Rights and Diplomacy, chronicles the rise of Defense Department (DOD) influence over the shaping of US policy toward the region, primarily through the Pentagon’s use of security assistance provided to “police, militaries, and other Central Asian security forces.” It goes on to note that “the US government has no comprehensive budget” for such security assistance.
The report purports to offer “the fullest accounting available to date” of both the means and the methods of Washington’s security assistance approach in Central Asia.
Beyond the lack of transparency in US military aid to Central Asia, the report, which was published by the Open Society Foundations (OSF), documents the decline of civilian influence on American policy toward the region. The Defense Department (DOD), the report notes, “now provides more military aid to Central Asia than the Department of State, the traditional budgetary source of US military assistance. Moreover, the DOD enjoys unusual autonomy in distributing this aid.”
“US military commanders are able to dispense training and equipment almost at their discretion, and the US military is not required to make budgets for several of its aid programs public,” added the report. [Editor’s note: EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices of OSF’s, which released the report].
It has reached a point today that military officers can conduct a wide range of activities in Central Asia without checks from American diplomats. “US ambassadors, as the highest ranking emissary of the US government in each Central Asian country, should have a full picture of all US military activities taking place in and planned for that country. However, that is not necessarily the case. The geographic combatant commands (like CENTCOM) now have staff in some embassies who report not to the ambassador or chief of mission, but rather solely to the military command.”
The extension of Pentagon influence over US policy in Central Asia occurred primarily in two waves, the report shows. The first occurred in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. “Following the 9/11 attacks, the Pentagon raised the priority of organizing, training and equipping foreign countries’ forces to a core mission of the US military,” the report states. “A primary reason for this shift was to ensure US forces’ access to the theaters of conflict.”
The second wave occurred in late 2008, with the development of the Northern Distribution Network, a supply line used for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The change in the way US security assistance is funneled to Central Asia has been a factor in reinforcing an authoritarian trend in the region.
“This new reality has implications for efforts – by Congress, local or international civil society, or others – to try and leverage democratic and human rights reforms by Central Asian governments,” the report asserts. “It also has changed the relative importance and power of US ambassadors and CENTCOM combatant commanders in countries of the region.”
The OSF's full report is available here.
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