Counting Security Assistance

In the rush to analyze the  trends and strategic implications of America’s defense expenditures, one area that can get lost in the shuffle is security assistance – which the United States has provided more than $200 billion of since 1950. In a recent event, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released its SIPRI Yearbook 2011 on global military spending, which includes military aid, when available, as a component of military expenditures.

There is only one problem with this – the budgetary authority for military aid in the US. government lies with the State Department, not the national defense (Function 050) account. As our own Gordon Adams, who was a panelist for the event, has pointed out before, security assistance comprises a variety of programs, which have been carried out under the authority of the Secretary of State, with Department of State planning guidance, and has been funded through the international affairs (Function 150) budget. While State continues to hold the purse strings on military aid, DOD has been taking an ever greater role in the leadership and implementation of these programs, a trend that Gordon has recommended be reversed – “These are civilian missions. The responsibility for strategy, planning, and budgeting should be in civilian hands – at the State Department and USAID.”