Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy?

• Author: Handley, John M.
• Position: Book review

Mission Creep: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy? Edited by Gordon Adams and Shoon Murray, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2014. ISBN 13: 978-1-62616-114-6, pp. 264 (end-notes plus references, notes on contributors, and an index), $49.95 Hardcover.

The book is divided into three sections, starting with the five chapters under "The Institutional and Political Context" followed by six chapters in "Observing the Militarizing Trend" and concluding with two chapters under "Implications of Militarism." The organization of the material reflects the editors' theme: the military is encroaching on Foreign Service missions, to the detriment of U.S. foreign policy and relations with the international community. In addition to the two editors (Gordon Adams and Shoon Murray), both professors at the School of International Service, the book appears to be a collection of papers or presentations by six additional academicians (Derek Reveron, Charles Cushman, G. William Anderson, Connie Veillette, Sharon Weiner, and Nina Serafino) plus four former career State Department practitioners (Ambassadors James Dobbins, Brian Carlson, Ed Marks, and Tony Quainton, all of whom also have their own academic credentials).

The introductory chapter by Adams and Murray summarizes the subsequent chapters (2 through 12), while the last chapter by Adams summarizes the recommendations gleaned from the previous chapters. All of the contributors of DOD accepting and accomplishing missions previously assigned to DOS, in Chapter 7, only Nina Serafino, who works for the Congressional Research Service, questions whether the Department of Defense (DOD) actively sought an expansion of its mission and she reminds readers to consider Congress's role in civilian oversight of U.S. activities and operations abroad. In 1961, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act (FAA), which makes the Secretary of State responsible for the supervision of all overseas assistance to include military assistance. This law remains in effect today, supplemented in 1976 when Congress charged the Secretary of State with the responsibility "for continuous supervision and general direction" (p. 122) of military education, training, and civic action. Serafino and her researchers came up with some very interesting comparisons: (1) for security assistance from 2001 to 2010 Department of State (DOS) accounts grew 65% while DOD accounts grew 32%; (2) for counterterrorism, peacekeeping, demining...