Foreign Military Training and DoD Engagement Activities of Interest: Joint Report to Congress Released by the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs March 2002 Executive Summary This report is presented pursuant to the requirements of two laws: the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended, and the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2002, as enacted in P.L. 107-115. The first requirement is Section 656 of the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA) (22 U.S.C. 2416), which provides:
The second requirement is Section 564 of the FY02 Foreign Operations Act, which provides: United States military training programs for foreign personnel are important tools to advance U.S. interests. As with all aspects of U.S. foreign policy, the Departments of Defense and State share congressional interest in ensuring these programs are consistent with our overall foreign policy objectives and are in accordance with all applicable U.S. laws and regulations. Volume I of this report provides the operational benefits to U.S. forces for these training and education programs and engagement activities; a description of each type of activity; a summary of all training provided along with the foreign policy justification for each country; country activity training lists (excluding training purchased by foreign countries through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program and excluding training to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries); and explanations of the purpose for each training activity. Volume I is unclassified and available on the Department of State and Defense Security Cooperation Agency websites. Volumes II and III are classified, thereby precluding either from being made available on the Internet. Within the report, approximately 49,500 individual events are arranged in alphabetical order within regions by country and fiscal year, and then listed in three main categories � education and training activities provided under the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Program; Department of State (DoS) funded activities; and Department of Defense (DoD) funded activities. DoS funded activities reported include: International Military Education and Training (IMET); Foreign Military Financing (FMF) funded training; International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL); Enhanced International Peacekeeping Capabilities (EIPC); and FAA drawdown for narcotics education and training. DoD funded activities reported in Volumes II and III include: Drug Interdiction and Counter-Drug Activities; Non-Security Assistance, Combatant Command Engagement Activities (e.g., Counter-Narcotics, Humanitarian Demining); and Although the Department of Defense does not consider Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) events as training, they are included in this report while other non-training activities, such as U.S. ship port visits and combined exercises have been omitted. Some categories of training, such as Expanded-IMET (E-IMET) and the Regional Centers, also include training of non-military personnel, and some non-training counterdrug activities are also included. The report is more than a simple summary of more than 49,500 different events � it is a record of the many ways in which foreign military education and training programs and engagement activities support U.S. foreign policy by improving the capabilities of U.S. friends and allies, and providing training opportunities for both U.S. and foreign forces. By helping to shape the international security environment in ways favorable to U.S. interests, these programs help allies and friends create favorable balances of military power in critical areas of the world to deter aggression or coercion. These training programs also provide a range of security cooperation benefits for our friends and allies, and assure them of our commitment as a reliable security partner. Not only do these programs provide intellectual and technical benefits to the participants, they also expose thousands of current and future foreign military leaders to the values essential to forces responsible for maintaining security in democratic societies. For example, a training program designed to provide instruction in areas such as defense resources management or command-and-control architecture also simultaneously highlights the benefits of effective civilian oversight and respect for the rule of law � concepts that are essential to developing a professional military force. Finally, as valuable as these programs are for our friends and allies, in this changing security environment, they also provide direct benefits to U.S. service members. When U.S. service members meet with their foreign counterparts, they improve their understanding of foreign military organizations, languages, cultures, and political systems, as well as the different types of environments into which they might deploy in the future. | |||||