U.S. IMET Participation and the Outcome and Duration of Insurgencies

ABSTRACT

The United States has provides international military education and training (U.S. IMET) to military personnel from more than 100 countries annually. In spite of this, the effects of such training have received limited study in international relations literature. This article explores how these programmes affect the outcome and duration of insurgencies. It theorises that military education and training received in the U.S. improves the human capital of recipient state militaries. This improvement makes the overall military forces of incumbent governments more capable and effective in their fights against insurgents, leading to increased probabilities of government victories. This analysis also argues that improvement in incumbent governments’ military capabilities incentivizes insurgents to disperse, hide, and not engage government forces in open battles, resulting in prolonged conflicts. The statistical analysis of a new, merged dataset including detailed information on insurgencies and U.S. IMET participation between 1976 and 2003 supports both arguments.

KEYWORDS:

• U.S. Military Aid
• Insurgency
• Outcome
• Duration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Great Britain, the British Commonwealth, Free France, the Soviet Union (after 1941), and China (after 1942).

2. Mutual Defense Assistance Act, generally called the Military Assistance Programme (hereafter, MAP), which allowed the U.S. government to provide military aid in the form of education and training to selected countries to help them defend themselves from aggression.

3. Itself an amendment of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (Cope, 1995).

4. In 1976 renamed as U.S. IMET.

5. According to Savage and Caverley (2017) the annual training budget of the U.S. military is bigger than entire defensc budget of 117 countries.

6. Lootable resources include diamonds and gemstones, illicit drugs, and petroleum deposits.

7. These organizations were the Central American Workers’ Revolutionary Party, the People’s Revolutionary Army, the Farabundo Martí Popular Liberation Forces, the Armed Forces of National Resistance, and the Communist Party of El Salvador’s Armed Forces of Liberation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sandor Fabian

Sandor Fabian is a research associate in the School of Politics, Security and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida and a curriculum developer and advanced studies team leader at LEIDOS. His research focuses on the domestic and international level effects of U.S. military aid in the form of foreign military education and training programs. He holds a PhD in Security Studies, a MsC in Defense Analysis in Irregular Warfare and a B.A. in Military Sciences.