Yea, about that Counterinsurgency Strategy... Posted by Patrick Barry

One of the implications of the Bush Administration's decision to fight two wars, each requiring attempts to develop (Afghanistan) or re-develop (Iraq) whole countries has been that U.S. foreign assistance is increasingly perceived as an attempt to further political, even military objectives. Today's coverage in the Post on the latest report from Development Assistance Research Associates (DARA) confirms this shift in perceptions:

The United States, the world's largest international aid donor, is among the worst at promoting the independence, impartiality and neutrality of humanitarian aid deliveries to needy populations, according to a survey by a Madrid-based nonprofit group that monitors donors' performance...

... DARA findings echo concerns by aid workers that U.S. strategy subordinates humanitarian considerations to military objectives. During the past decade, the Pentagon's share of the U.S. overseas development-assistance budget has grown from 3.5 percent to 18 percent, said George Rupp, president of the International Rescue Committee.

My feelings on this are mixed.  It definitely doesn't help U.S. image if our development initiatives are seen as coming at the end of a gun, but given the reality that the U.S. is fighting two wars, both emphasizing counterinsurgency - a military strategy depending primarily on non-military means - it's not that surprising and also not that unwelcome.  I'm reminded of a quote from Alex Rossmiller, which appeared in Spencer Ackerman's series on counterinsurgency for the Washington Independent.  It really cuts to the core tensions encapsulated within this debate:

“When there’s a war going on these things [governance, provision of goods and services, rule of law, etc.] tend to be thought of as counterinsurgency measures, but more generally we think of them as the basic requirements for any government or group to claim authority.”

Rossmiller's basic point is that with the elevation of counterinsurgency, you've seen a corresponding militarization of certain components of the U.S. development policy, which have previously been independent.  Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing.  A military that understands the importance of development and governance should be something progressives can greet positively. I'd much rather have there be PRTs delivering aid in Afghanistan if the alternative is that no aid is delivered at all.  If U.S. troops were still stuck in their bases in Iraq, and not patrolling the streets, doling out goods and services, would recent security gains have been as dramatic?  Probably not. National security or military justifications can also help sell development to domestic audiences, even as international reception to that kind of blending is ambivalent, even hostile.  So there are plenty of reasons to explain why this militarization of foreign aid is happening, and why it's not altogether bad.

But development also has merits that are apart from its short-term military usefulness. There are good reasons, both self-interested and altruistic, for U.S. development to be seen as something apart from military exercises. Foreign assistance generates good-will, establishes ties between development officers and like-minded allies in recipient countries, and it's consistent with some of our best principles. Effective counterinsurgency depends on producing these results, but as the DARA report finds, it can also weaken their broader effectiveness.  As the U.S. shifts more attention and resources to places like Afghanistan, where development and counterinsurgency go hand-in-hand, these tensions are likely to come into further relief.

Comments

[Don Bacon]

The description of US troops "patrolling the streets, doling out goods and services" is particularly amusing. You forgot "helping little old ladies cross the street."

Words are important and definitions matter. An insurgency is an armed struggle against an established government. Iraq and Afghanistan (and Vietnam before that) ain't insurgencies.

The US attacks a country, overthrows the established government and establishes a puppet government (the first two steps were skipped in 'Nam) and occupies the country militarily. The US then has to fight the occupation resistance (mistakenly called insurgents) and attempt to build and/or rebuild infrastructure, probably that which was destroyed in the initial phases mentioned, and in fact is continuously destroyed.

Now in a country subjected to the fundamental changes listed above, with an ineffective and often corrupt government, antipathy from the natives, and ongoing military destruction, there is little chance that there would be any meaningful development. It defies logic.

People tend to forego the good-will about random development projects when there is a foreign military killing, imprisoning and torturing members of their family and their neighbors, to say nothing of themselves.

Remember the hysteria and hatred in the US when some guys destroyed some buildings and killed some people in the USA, and the US went on to destroy a couple of other countries as a result? That's called blowback, and it's not peculiar to Americans.

Do Americans care about the feelings of the people in those countries it invades? Or do Americans think that they know best. My feelings on this are not mixed.

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