Military vs. Bureaucratic Thinking

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13 years…6 councils…0 results. Witness the history and goals of the Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA), as written by Eric Farnsworth, Vice President of the Council of the Americas (COA):

In July 1995, the first Defense Ministerial of the Americas (DMA) was held in Williamsburg, Virginia gathering civilian and military leaders of the region together for the first time. During three days of intensive meetings, they discussed a broad range of security issues in an atmosphere of open dialogue and mutual confidence. The six “Williamsburg Principles” they established have guided hemispheric security policies since that time. These principles recognize that the preservation of democracy is the basis for mutual security and that armed forces must be subordinate to democratically elected leaders.

After all, history implies some type of movement, even a regressive one. According to Colonel John Cope, however, the DMA has not “progressed really far since 1995.”

Col. Cope is a Senior Research Fellow at the U.S. National Defense University. On August 13, he joined Canadian Major General Doug Langton, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Western Hemisphere, Stephen Johnson, in a panel discussion at COA. By his own admission, Cope’s opinions of DMA stemmed from being an “interested observer” and the “friction in the machine.”

The problem, argued Cope, is that the defense ministers from North America are not putting their “good words into practice.” Although the “Williamsburg Principles” are filled with “platitudes,” they lack “practical” application. Since 1995, DMA has only accomplished two things. First, Secretary of Defense William Perry created the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies. Second, DMA created a venue for the North American leaders to meet every other year. However, as of 2008, “no consensus” exists among the nations to implement cooperative strategic defense measures.

Stephen Johnson took Cope to task. “The need for consensus,” stated Johnson, “limits what [can go] into a declaration.” Membership of DMA also makes agreement difficult because “diplomats” and “military” personnel comprise the ranks. According to Major General Langton, “prosperity, Democratic governments, markets, and security” concerns DMA. Stephen Johnson emphasized “peace-keeping” as well.

The defense, security, and economic goals are intertwined, however. As Farnsworth’s introduction stated, countries will not invest in Central and South America if an “investment atmosphere” does not exist. Governments and businesses must “feel safe” in order for capital to flow through trade channels.

Less than a handful of countries in Central and South America are investment friendly. According to Langton, this is due to an increase in “transnational crime,” lack of “effective military[ies]”/ “defense modernization,” and low investment in “newer technologies and creativity.” The Western Hemisphere, therefore, needs to practice “information-sharing” and “transparency” in order to support a “promotion of renewed unity.” Cooperation is also difficult because democratic ideals are at play. Simply put – more democratic nations “will not force concrete actions from” less democratic nations.

But for Col. Cope, thirteen years of diplomatic mental masturbation has confounded problem-solving. The number of issues the DMA has taken on seems to have stifled progress. His solution begins with the North American ministers “focus[ing] on one area as a test case – disaster relief.” Multilateral cooperation on disaster relief is perfect, according to Cope, because “disaster is the great equalizer.” Currently, even after thirteen years, North and South America have “no [cooperative] mechanisms to respond to disasters.” Instead, most countries defer to the United Nations and development capital from the World Bank (WB).

DMA will meet again in Banff, Canada, September 2-6. While Johnson and Langton liked Cope’s suggestion, it remains to be seen whether the 650 DMA delegates will move any closer to accomplishing its thirteen year old goals. Col. Cope remains skeptical. In order for September’s meeting to be successful, the diplomats must stop trying to build cohesion from the top-down. Instead, success can and should be reached from “a bottom-up approach.”

Daniel Smith is an intern at the American Journalism Center a training program run jointly by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.