Exporting Security: International Engagement, Security Cooperation, and the Changing Face of the U.S. Military

by Derek S. Reveron

Given U.S. focus on the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is easy to miss that the military does much more than engage in combat. On any given day, military engineers dig wells in East Africa, medical personnel provide vaccinations in Latin America, and special forces mentor militaries in southeast Asia.

To address today's security challenges, the military partners with civilian agencies, NGOs, and the private sector both at home and abroad. By doing so, the United States seeks to improve its international image, strengthen the state sovereignty system by training and equipping partners' security forces, prevent localized violence from escalating into regional crises, and protect U.S. national security by addressing underlying conditions that inspire and sustain violent extremism.

In Exporting Security , Derek Reveron provides a comprehensive analysis of the shift in U.S. foreign policy from coercive diplomacy to cooperative military engagement, examines how and why the U.S. military is an effective tool of foreign policy, and explores the methods used to reduce security deficits around the world.

Genres: International Relations

208 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2010

Reviews

[Daphne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deals with the central question of whether the US military should be utilized in non-combatant capacities overseas. The author argues that the security landscape has changed — war and peace aren’t discrete, and we often occupy a gray space in between. Since many violent threats are founded in areas facing extreme insecurity, the US military can “nip this in the bud” so to speak by building schools, vaccination campaigns, medical help, and HIV/AIDS awareness measures. He delves into the relationship between State, DOD, and USAID in the logistics and execution of these programs, all the while emphasizing the need for collaboration with local NGOs, international organizations, etc..

Of course, there are some who argue that the military’s sole focus should be warfighting, and that any involvement other than that inevitably detracts from combat preparedness. However, the author counters that addressing insecurity overseas through humanitarian means today could mean preventing an existential threat to the homeland in 30 years time.

Secondary emphasis is on the role of military training and capacity building programs with foreign counterparts (ex: JTF-HOA’s EASWIO program, which hosts military, civilian, and port authority conferences with partner nations re: maritime issues such as piracy). Signals shift away from Cold War Era system, where the emphasis was on providing technology and supplies, towards a system focused on capacity building so that countries can address these issues without US aid in the future.

Written in 2010, so a little dated in some ways. An interesting read regardless.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reveron argues that the last twenty years illustrate the changed nature of national security and does not easily divide activities between war and peace. Instead, security issues encompass defense, development, and diplomacy. A problem such as Somali piracy is simultaneously military, economic, social, and political. Solutions require unity of effort among the U.S. government, industry, NGOs, and international partners. In recognition of this, the military has been adapting to the new security landscape. Its size and resources, to include the National Guard and Reserve Component, enable the Department of Defense to cut across the civil-military divide through operations that have little to do with warfighting. For example, through its organic medical, construction, and logistics capabilities, military personnel perform humanitarian and development missions alongside NGOs, USAID, and international partners.

[Spencer Willardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book out of interest thinking that it might be good for some of my research. I was right. It is an interesting read if you are interested in all the ways that the military is engaged throughout the world. Whether you think the military does too much, or whether you think the US should be engaged everywhere with everyone about everything, or whether you think it doesn't do enough, you will find plenty of information and analysis to make you think more about your own views.