Building Foreign Military Human Capital

• In Event: Foreign Military Interaction

Abstract

What are the effects of the U.S. Foreign Military Education and Training (hereafter, IMET) programs on the participating individuals and through them on state behavior? Although the United States has been utilizing foreign security assistance and partner military capability development programs since the 1960s the effects of these programs seem to be understudied in international relations scholarship. While some studies have explored the effects of military assistance in the form of weapons and money the literature on the effects of the education and training programs is almost none existent. Through the utilization of a survey conducted in Hungary this research project intends to fill some of this existing gap. The study tests the hypotheses put forward in previous literature to either further support their findings or refute them. The project also explores the validity of some basic assumptions that are being taken exogenously in previous literature and the author`s previous papers through the testing of two original hypotheses. Finally, the study intends to provide an objective measure of effectiveness that policy makers can use to consider maintaining these programs as is or to adjust them to improve their effectiveness.

Author

• Sandor Fabian, University of Central Florida