Securing Tyrants or Fostering Reform?

[Jedburgh]

RAND, Dec 06: Securing Tyrants or Fostering Reform? U.S. Internal Security Assistance to Repressive and Transitioning Regimes

This report examines U.S. government assistance to the police and internal security agencies of repressive and transitioning states. Throughout its history, the United States has provided assistance to a number of countries that have not shared its political ideals. Their security forces were not accountable to the public, and their practices and approaches were not transparent. The decision to provide assistance to repressive and autocratic states (and states that are, to varying extents, seeking to transition away from repression) raises a number of questions, the answers to which have significant policy implications. Can U.S. assistance improve the effectiveness of internal security agencies in countering security threats? Has U.S. assistance improved the accountability and human rights records of these agencies? What is the relationship between improving security and improving accountability and human rights?...

...We examine four cases in which the United States has provided internal security assistance to repressive or transitioning regimes: El Salvador, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The success of U.S. efforts varies widely among them. The assessment of U.S. assistance to El Salvador focuses on the period after the 1992 Chapultepec Accords, and the Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan cases focus primarily on assistance after September 11, 2001...