Small footprint,small payoff: The military effectiveness of security force assistance |
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| Authors: | Stephen Biddle Julia Macdonald Ryan Baker |
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| Institution: | 1. Political Science and International Relations, George Washington University, and Adjunct Senior Fellow for Defense Policy, Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, USAsbiddle@gwu.edu;3. Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA??????????;4. Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA?????????? |
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| Abstract: | After 15 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, many now see ‘small-footprint’ security force assistance (SFA) – training, advising and equipping allied militaries – as an alternative to large US ground-force commitments. Yet, its actual military efficacy has been little studied. This paper seeks to fill this gap. We find important limitations on SFA’s military utility, stemming from agency problems arising from systematic interest misalignment between the US and its typical partners. SFA’s achievable upper bound is modest and attainable only if US policy is intrusive and conditional, which it rarely is. For SFA, small footprints will usually mean small payoffs. |
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| Keywords: | Military effectiveness strategy defense policy military assistance training advising allies |
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