Integrating 21st Century Development and Security Assistance

DISAM Journal, March, 2008

[The following are excerpts of the final report of the Task Force on Non-Traditional Security Assistance, December 2007. The complete report can be viewed at the following web site: www.csis.org.]

About the Center for Strategic and International Studies

In an era of ever-changing global opportunities and challenges, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) provides strategic insights and practical policy solutions to decision makers. CSIS conducts research and analysis and develops policy initiatives that look into the future and anticipate change.

Founded by David M. Abshire and Admiral Arleigh Burke at the height of the Cold War, CSIS was dedicated to the simple but urgent goal of finding ways for America to survive as a nation and prosper as a people. Since 1962, CSIS has grown to become one of the world's preeminent public policy institutions.

Today, CSIS is a bipartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. More than 220 full-time staff and a large network of affiliated scholars focus their expertise on defense and security; on the world's regions and the unique challenges inherent to them; and on the issues that know no boundary in an increasingly connected world.

Former U.S. senator Sam Nunn became chairman of the CSIS Board of Trustees in 1999, and John J. Hamre has led CSIS as its president and chief executive officer since 2000.

Preface

In early 2007, CSIS launched an expert task force to examine the growing involvement of the Department of Defense (DoD) as a direct provider of non-traditional security assistance, concentrated in counterterrorism, capacity building, stabilization and reconstruction, and humanitarian relief. The Task Force set out to shed light on what drives this trend, including the new global threat environment; assess what was happening at the same time in the diplomatic and developmental realms; evaluate DoD performance in conducting its expanded missions; and consider the impact of the Pentagon's enlarged role on broader U.S. national security, foreign policy and development interests. From the outset, the Task Force sought to generate concrete, practical recommendations to Congress and the White House on reforms and legislation that will create a better and more sustainable balance between military and civilian tools.

We have been very fortunate that Representative Robert Andrews (D-NJ) of the House Armed Services Committee and Representative Mark Kirk (R-IL) of the House Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs agreed to serve as the Task Force cochairs. Both are intellectual leaders in Congress and eloquent spokesmen for a robust and balanced U.S. national security policy. We are grateful for their guidance and commitment.

In populating the Task Force, we consciously sought to bring to the table the divergent perspectives spanning the defense, diplomatic and development communities. All needed to be present for the Task Force to succeed, and for it to be different. Seldom, it seems, do all three deliberate together on shared emerging challenges and pragmatic options for moving forward. We succeeded in achieving this essential goal. The Task Force's thirteen members are all prominent individuals, with extensive experience in the executive and legislative branches, the U.S. military, Department of Defense, Department of State (DOS), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), non-governmental organizations, the private sector, and major think tanks. We thank the Task Force members for clearing their busy schedules to participate in several meetings, and for their generous intellectual input and feedback on drafts. Both the analysis and recommendations of this report reflect a strong majority consensus among the Task Force members endorsing its policy thrust and judgments, though not necessarily every finding and recommendation.

The Task Force is grateful to the project's gifted core contributors. Through their extensive personal contributions, Jim Schear of National Defense University, independent consultant Mark Wong, and Stewart Patrick of the Center for Global Development spearheaded analysis of disaster relief, counterterrorism, and post-conflict reconstruction, respectively. We wish to single out Stewart Patrick for special praise in light of the exceptional skill and care he invested in bringing the full report together.

The Task Force is indebted to Elizabeth Sullivan and Eric Ridge of CSIS, who ably managed its multiple activities and the final report's publication. Finally, we wish to thank the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for supporting this experiment, financially and intellectually. Linda Frey and Smita Singh were active partners, at all times flexible, engaged and accessible. Their support made it possible to test whether diplomatic, development and security experts could engage successfully in a focused, constructive dialogue on the balance of approaches needed in this new era.

Executive Summary

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001, the U.S. concept and approach to global security have changed fundamentally. Weak and failing states, long neglected, have risen dramatically as a priority focus. We understand that threats to U.S. interests can emanate from within states with which the United States is not at war and that persistent poverty can be a significant contributor to those threats. There is now a strategic imperative to devise multi-decade, integrated approaches that are preventative in nature. Foundational to this preventative approach are sustainable overseas partnerships that build capacity for good governance and security, foster economic prosperity and social well-being, and more effectively promote community-level development. Accordingly, we now place a very explicit, and far higher premium, on the unity of effort of our foreign and national security policy instruments, especially defense, diplomacy, and development.