Toward a new foreign policy.

The Bush administration's post-9/11 actions regarding security assistance show a complete disregard for the role of Congress in crafting foreign policy by challenging the restrictions that Congress has placed on weapons transfers and circumventing the oversight role that legislators should play throughout the security assistance approval process. The administration has been seeking authorization from Congress to act outside the law and beyond further congressional scrutiny. In the meantime, it has been dismantling state-specific regulations that are in the executive branch's jurisdiction or has asked allies in Congress to sponsor temporary waivers.

The legal barriers to security assistance that the administration is frantically trying to circumvent are actually few and far between. They have been cautiously erected only after certain members of Congress proved to their skeptical colleagues that the foreign policy goals to be protected were well worth the limits imposed on the administration's freedom of action. From human rights conditions on aid to Indonesia and Colombia to a prohibition on aid to military units that have committed human rights abuses (the Leahy Law), these laws were designed to protect the security of civilians overseas from repressive governments and associated paramilitary groups. Since the antiterrorism campaign professes to be about protecting innocent lives, these laws must be retained and respected, if not strengthened further.

In addition, the president has not made a clear case that much of the proposed security assistance would actually help protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks. The administration needs to lay out a general antiterrorism strategy showing what role specific states will be playing and how military aid will help them do so. It also needs to be more transparent about exactly what type of aid is being given and to whom, rather than making blanket requests for military aid. Any new provisions of security assistance should include reporting requirements detailing how the aid is being used and how these activities are helping to reduce the terrorist threat to the United States. Such reports should also examine the impact that aid is having on the physical security of civilians in the recipient states.

Until the administration is more open about its security assistance programs, the American public should be skeptical about their true objectives. Military aid that cannot clearly be justified on antiterrorism grounds should be separated out and debated on its own merits.

Having a clearer idea about the administration's strategic vision could also help determine the best mechanisms for achieving those goals. The accepted premise in the administration and within much of Congress is that security assistance is the best way to reward foreign governments for their help and to entice greater cooperation from reluctant states. This idea stems from increasing U.S. reliance on military diplomacy--a belief that U.S. foreign policy goals can best be achieved through military-to-military contacts and weapons sales as opposed to traditional economic and diplomatic ties. Washington also responds to the preferences of aid recipients, who often favor security assistance because they are more interested in boosting their power than in serving the interests of their populations.

But in many cases, economic or humanitarian aid would be much more effective tools for reducing threats to American interests than would military aid. The former would help foreign governments provide better education and greater economic opportunities for youth that might otherwise be tempted by the support of a terrorist network. U.S. military aid, on the other hand, often serves to prop up regimes that do not enjoy the support of their people, further increasing resentment and anger at the United States. Helping other states fight terrorism in their territory also requires building an effective, responsible judiciary that knows how to seek out and apprehend suspected terrorists without contravening human rights.

In the end, American policymakers need to remember that what comes around goes around. If the U.S. government continues to be blind to the possible ramifications of U.S. military aid on the lives of civilians overseas, it may find that it is constructing a new wave of antagonism toward the United States. If President Bush truly wants the world to be with us rather than against us, he needs to think of ways to win the support of foreign governments and their populations in a nonviolent and constructive manner.

Key Recommendations

* Current U.S. restrictions on military aid and arms should remain intact, if not be strengthened, to promote the security and human rights of civilians worldwide.

* The administration needs to be transparent and specific about its security assistance programs and their true objectives.

* Economic assistance should replace military aid in an effort to alleviate poverty and other factors that can create a breeding ground for anti-Americanism and terrorism.

Tamar Gabelnick <[e-mail]> is director of the Arms Sales Monitoring Project of the Federation of American Scientists.