Brief: Demystifying End-Use Monitoring in U.S. Arms Exports
Security Assistance Monitor, CIVIC, Stimson
September 2021
A new brief from the Security Assistance Monitor, the Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC), and the Stimson Center examines the myths, misconceptions, and realities of End-Use Monitoring in U.S. arms sales – practices that are intended to ensure U.S. weaponry are not diverted, lost, or misused.
The United States remains the world’s largest purveyor of arms, representing nearly 37% of global arms exports between 2015 and 2020. In 2020 alone, the U.S. government approved over $110 billion in arms sales to countries in every corner of the globe. Concerned about U.S. arms facilitating human rights violations, civilian harm in conflict, and corruption, U.S. lawmakers and advocates have long sought to create safeguards against the misuse of the billions in American weaponry shipped abroad every year. End-use monitoring (EUM) is intended to be the answer to those concerns and is aimed at satisfying statutory requirements for the U.S. government to provide assurances that American arms are not being misused, diverted, or otherwise violating the terms of their export. Unfortunately, the current EUM regime fails to address today’s concerns about the human impact of U.S. arms transfers. The brief is intended to give an overview of current EUM policies, dispel commonly held misconceptions of current EUM practice, and offer recommendations for how these regulations could be strengthened.
To read the full brief and its findings click here.
Event Reminder: Learning From The Afghanistan Experience: Re-Assessing U.S. Weapon and Security Assistance
Please join the Forum on the Arms Trade and Security Assistance Monitor for a conversation examining lessons learned from security assistance in Afghanistan and the potential consequences of weapons lost there, as well as insights that should be applied to existing security assistance efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere, especially those riddled by corruption.
Panelists
Tamim Asey, Founder and Executive Chairman, Institute of War & Peace Studies
James Cunningham, Project Lead, Security Sector Assistance, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR)
Jodi Vittori, Co-chair, Global Politics and Security Program, Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service; Non-Resident Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Elias Yousif, Deputy Director, Security Assistance Monitor, Center for International Policy
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President Biden’s State Department has notified Congress of a potential $500 million in rotary-wing maintenance support to Saudi Arabia. The maintenance services will support “the Royal Saudi Land Forces Aviation Command’s (RSLFAC) fleet of AH-64D/E, UH-60L, UH-60M, Schweizer 333, and Bell 406CS helicopters, as well as the future fleet of CH-47F Chinook helicopters.” President Biden promised at the outset of his administration to reassess US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia given the Saudi-led coalition’s record of civilian harm in Yemen.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko has agreed to testify before the House Oversight and Reform Committee as its GOP members call for hearings to evaluate the Afghanistan withdrawal. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have yet to respond to requests to testify on Afghanistan before the Committee.
Ukraine & the U.S. will hold a bilateral training exercise, Rapid Trident 2021, in western Ukraine next week. The exercise will “involve 6,000 troops from 15 countries – Ukraine, the United States and other NATO members” and is scheduled to last until October 1.
Leaders from the U.S., U.K., and Australia have announced the formation of Aukus, a security partnership that aims to counter Chinese power in the South China Sea by providing Australia with the technology necessary to produce nuclear submarines. The arrangement will also facilitate the transfer of cybersecurity and quantum technologies. The decision has solicited condemnation from foreign policy leaders in France upset at being excluded from the arrangement.
Evidence is mounting that an Afghan man killed by a U.S. drone strike on August 29 in Kabul was a “beloved longtime employee at an American humanitarian organization” who was unaffiliated with ISIS-K. An open-source investigation into the assassination by the New York Times contradicted early claims by Senior Pentagon officials defending the targeting process that culminated in the strike.
Leaders from Germany have joined France in objecting to a plan developed by Mali’s military junta to hire a Russian mercenary firm to train Malian security forces. Both Germany and France are conducting long-term counter-terrorism operations in Mali against al Qaeda and ISIS affiliates in the Sahel.
The House Armed Services Committee’s FY22 National Defense Authorization Act includes an amendment that would push the Biden administration to transfer new air and missile defense systems, like Iron Dome to Ukraine. increasing tensions with Moscow.
