War at Arm’s Length

How America Can Build Effective Partners Through Military Assistance
An in-depth examination of how the United States can build more effective partner militaries

Military assistance has a bad reputation. Large-scale attempts to build partner militaries in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam cost the United States billions of dollars and ended ignominiously, with the collapse of local forces as American troops withdrew. Arms transfers of sophisticated, American-made weapons often appear to do more harm than good. Yet military assistance and supportoperating indirectly through partnerswhen done right, can deliver remarkable strategic results for the United States and its partners. How to work effectively with partner militaries is one of the most pressing national security challenges for the United States today.

Richard Bennet and Alexander Noyes offer a systematic look at military assistance in the twenty-first century