8.9B - Military Aid
Military aid, both in terms of training personnel and weapons sales, is sometimes used to support countries that themselves have questionable human rights records.
Military aid takes the form of training another country's military personnel to fight, or operate military equipment, plus the supply of weapons either for free or at subsidised prices.
It is an important part of foreign policy of some developed and emerging countries. It is especially important to the USA, which provides military aid to over 100 countries each year. Most aid goes to the Middle East. Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and Egypt each received over $1 billion in 2017. This aid is partly used to fight terrorism, and partly to rebuild military and police forces in countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan after years of conflict. However, it has wider geopolitical aims:
- By arming Iraq (2016: $5280 million), Afghanistan ($5100 million), Pakistan and Jordan the USA is creating strong allies against Iran - which the USA sees as a destabilising influence in the Middle East
- The USA supports Israel (an enemy of Iran) partly because the Jewish vote is important in internal US politics, and the USA sees a powerful Israel ($3100 million) as an important component of stability in the Middle East
- Egypt controls the Suez Canal, a vital world trade shipping route important to American businesses, so by giving military aid to Egypt ($1200 million) the USA may hope to safeguard access to the canal.
Developed countries sell arms (military equipment of all types - bullets->missiles-> fighter jets) to developing and emerging countries. World trade in arms is dominated by exports from six countries (USA, Russia, China, Germany, UK, France). In 2017, the USA exported $42 billion worth of arms to other countries.
The three largest buyers of US weapons are countries which themselves have questionable human rights records:
- Saudi Arabia
- the position of women is very poor in terms of education, personal freedom, political involvement and employment
- Turkey
- Since 2010 President Erdogan has restricted press and media freedom, and arrested thousands of opposition political leaders and activists. Elections are not the most democratic.
- UAE
- Stoning and flogging are legal punishments, homosexuality is a crime, women need the permission of a male guardian to marry and the working conditions for hundreds of thousands of South-Asian low-skilled migrants are very poor.
Both arms sales and military aid flow towards countries which have poor records on human rights. There is an argument that such assistance increases security, reduces terrorism risk, and may even help maintain peace in the Middle East. On the other hand, the billions involved could be put to work improving water and food supply, female education, or healthcare for mothers and children.