Security Assistance
The Office of International Acquisition Programs focuses on building partnerships throughout the security assistance community. To learn more about Security Assistance, check out The Management of Security Assistance textbook and the DSCA Customer Guide to U.S. Security Assistance Programs.
- The Office of International Acquisition Programs is working with the Director of Security Assistance and Arms Transfers within the U.S. Department of State.
- In the U.S. Department of Defense, the Office of International Acquisition Programs has opened communication channels with the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, participated in the Shipboard Systems Planning Forum organized by the U.S. Navy International Programs Office (IPO), and presented briefings at several security assistance officer conferences (SAO).
- Lastly, with regard to the U.S. Commerce Department, the International Acquisition Programs Office has signed an agreement with the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), under which that bureau will help promote sales of Coast Guard equipment to navies around the world.
Goal of Security Assistance
The primary “goal” of Security Assistance in the form of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) is to support the effective execution of U.S. foreign policy and promotion of U.S. national security. Through the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), the sale and other transfer of defense-related items is tightly controlled. The granting of access to the finest, most-advanced military systems in the world is viewed and utilized as a tool of overall administration policy. The execution of this facet of the administration’s foreign policy is delegated to the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense with relevant oversight by the U.S. Congress.
National security involves consideration of a wide spectrum of elements, resources, and interests, including but not limited to the political, military, economic, human, technological, environmental, and sociological aspects of our society. The policy-making requirement is then to realistically assess priorities within this spectrum, and establish some coherent logic by which to establish a foreign policy. The interaction and interdependency of these priorities determine the evolution, substance, and direction of policies.
Former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger succinctly summarized the issue,
"Foreign policy must start with security. A nation’s survival is
its first and ultimate responsibility; it cannot be compromised or put to risk.
There can be no security for us or for others unless the strength of the free
countries is in balance with that of potential adversaries, and no stability
in power relationships is conceivable without America’s active participation
in world affairs."
Dr. Kissinger also has stated that U.S. goals in an interdependent world are to:
- Maintain our national strength and national purpose.
- Revitalize continually our bond to allies, who share our traditions, values and interests.
- Reduce the perils of nuclear war.
- Build a rational relationship with potential adversaries.
- Help resolve regional conflicts that imperil global peace.
- Resolve the crucial economic issues before us in the context of a new era of global economic cooperation between all nations, industrial and developing, producers and consumers, east and west, north and south.
As long as there are challenges to United States national interests, security assistance will remain a major instrument of our national security and foreign policy. Security assistance serves U.S. interests by assisting allies and friends to acquire, maintain, and, if necessary, employ the capability for self-defense. Also, for countries in regions in which the U.S. has special security concerns, such assistance helps them attack the causes of economic and political instability. The U.S. must continue to strengthen its own military capabilities and be prepared to assist friends and allies to strengthen theirs. In essence, security assistance and FMS complements and supplements our own defense posture and contributes to the vitalization of our alliances.