HOW DOES UNITED STATES SECURITY ASSISTANCE AFFECT HOST NATION DEMOCRATIZATION?

Abstract

How does U.S. security assistance affect host nation democratization? This thesis analyzes Department of State and Department of Defense assistance over time to Lebanon and Pakistan to evaluate its effects on the host nation's political rights and civil liberties, measured by Freedom House ratings. In both cases, changes in Freedom House ratings did not correlate consistently with changes in U.S. security assistance. The influence of U.S. security assistance on host nation governance is frequently over-stated. U.S. security assistance has minimal effect on democratization compared to local and regional actors, because it is designed and resourced primarily to accomplish security objectives, not to drive enduring institutional reform. If the United States wanted security assistance to decisively support democratization, then it would need to design and resource security assistance and security cooperation programs differently. Redesigning U.S. security assistance to supersede the influence of other factors on democratization would require increasing funding toward defense institution building, making security assistance conditional on political rights and civil liberties performance, and consistently integrating security assistance within a whole-of-government strategy toward the host nation for a generation or more.