From Azerbaijan to Zambia: Security Cooperation Bears Fruit, Depending on the Type of Soil and the Type of Seeds

摘要

One of the principal goals Of U.S. "security cooperation" with other countries is to reduce theirfragility. In pursuit of this goal, security cooperation relies heavily on U.S. assistance to the internal and external security organizations of countries around the world. But does the strategy work? RAND researchers analyzed more than 100 countries that had received U.S. security cooperation assistance from 1991 to 2008, including such major recipients as Colombia, Jordan, the Philippines, Uganda, and Yemen. The researchers found that, on average, security cooperation did correlate with a statistically significant reduction in state fragility within five years. The effect was weakest in countries that were less democratic and most at risk of state failure. This suggests that security cooperation might be better at reinforcing success than in halting a country's decline into instability—all of which underscores the importance of prevention as a form of security cultivation.