Through its international security assistance programs, the United States advances its foreign policy agenda, exercises influence, sometimes wreaks havoc or abets abusive conduct, and now and then does good things.
Security assistance refers to a variety of programs involving arms sales abroad, military training of foreign security services, and other defense-related activities.
A new non-profit website called Security Assistance Monitor presents “all publicly available data on U.S. foreign security assistance programs worldwide from 2000 to the present.”
It is a project of the Center for International Policy, with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Latin America Working Group Education Fund, Project on Middle East Democracy, and Washington Office of Latin America.
Richly documented and handsomely presented, it is an impressive new resource for journalists and students of international security policy.
Foreign Internal Defense (FID) is a related but distinct concept. Both involve support to foreign governments, but unlike security assistance, FID may include U.S. military operations as well as other forms of non-military aid.
FID “involves application of the instruments of U.S. national power in support of a foreign nation confronted by threats,” according to a new U.S. Army manual that explores the issue in depth. See Foreign Internal Defense, Army Techniques Publication (ATP) 3-05.2, August 19, 2015.
“FID may include financial, intelligence, and law enforcement assistance” as well as military support in some cases. “The fundamental goal is to prevent a downward spiral of instability by forestalling and defeating threats and by working to correct conditions that may prompt violence.”
Rebuilding such labs in a 21st century “Bell Labs X” form would restore a powerful and uniquely American approach to technoscientific discovery—harnessing the private sector to discover and invent in ways that fundamentally improve U.S. national and economic competitiveness.
The federal government should establish a system for awarding bounties to people who identify fraud in federally-funded research.
As surrogate markers are increasingly being accepted by FDA to support approval of new drugs and biologics, it is imperative that patients and clinicians understand whether such novel endpoints are reflective of meaningful clinical benefits.
The Secretary of Health and Human Services should launch a Department-wide initiative to reduce wasteful spending on health services, drugs, and ineffective medical devices, saving many lives as well as billions of dollars annually.