Repères 13/03/08 - Quand le pentagone décide de la politique étrangère des
Etats-Unis
Pentagon Crowds out State on Diplomacy, Eroding
Oversight, Report Says
Washington Office on Latin America
"In a little-noticed but disturbing transformation, U.S. foreign policy
decision-making is moving from the State Department to the Defense
Department.
A report released today shows that this shift of authority is on the verge
of becoming permanent as the Department of State and Congress sit passively on
the sidelines.
The report, entitled “Ready, Aim, Foreign Policy ”, is a publication of the
Just the Facts Project, a ten-year collaboration on security issues between the
Washington Office on Latin America, the Center for International Policy, and
the Latin America Working Group Education Fund. The report was released as the
Senate held hearings on the Southern Command’s annual report to Congress on
Thursday, March 6.
The shift toward Pentagon control over large areas of foreign assistance
“will have a crucial bearing on how U.S. power is exercised and projected
around the world,” says the new report.
The trend will “diminish congressional, public and even diplomatic control
over a substantial lever and symbol of foreign policy. It will undercut
human rights values in our relations with the rest of the world, and increase
the trend toward a projection of U.S. global power based primarily on military
might,” adds the report.
Recent developments reflecting this shift in responsibilities from State to
Defense include:
- The Pentagon’s attempt to expand authority for a pilot foreign military
aid program into a permanent and global Defense Department fund.
- The State Department’s call for a restructuring of foreign aid that would
cede its management of military aid to the Defense Department and reduce
congressional oversight.
- Southcom’s implementation of its “Command Strategy 2016,” which would
allow it to coordinate U.S. agencies, including non-military ones, operating in
Latin America.
There is a general belief that the State Department process by which foreign
military aid and training is provided is cumbersome and inefficient. The
report’s authors argue that is not reason enough to turn authority over to the
Pentagon.
“It is not acceptable to say ‘State is broken,’ and shift responsibilities
to the Defense Department; if State is broken, fix it,” said Joy Olson,
Executive Director of the Washington Office on Latin America.
"Military aid is one of the riskiest tools in the U.S. foreign policy
toolbox. It requires careful diplomatic management and close congressional
oversight,” said Adam Isacson, Program Director at the Center for International
Policy. “Moving aid into the Defense budget is weakening a 45-year-old legal
framework that sought to guarantee both of those."
The report’s authors stress that the drift toward Pentagon authority over
assistance could quickly undermine key human-rights safeguards in U.S. foreign
policy, as almost all human rights conditions on foreign assistance are limited
to programs funded through State.
“If the Pentagon takes charge of all military aid decisions, we’ll lose the
few human rights tools at our disposal. U.S. aid and training will become
even more an entitlement program for the world’s militaries,” said Lisa
Haugaard, Director of the Latin America Working Group Education Fund."
Full Report : “Ready, Aim, Foreign Policy”
