Summary

• Section 1207 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of FY 2006 and FY 2007 authorized the Defense Department (DOD) to provide up to $200 million over two years in funds, services, and defense articles to the State Department (DOS) for security, reconstruction, and stabilization.
• The DOD transferred over $99 million in Section 1207 assistance to the DOS to fund projects in Haiti ($20m), Somalia ($25m), Nepal ($10m), Colombia ($4m), trans-Sahara Africa ($15m), Yemen ($8.8m), and Southeast Asia ($16.9m).
• Congress’s intent in authorizing this program was to jump start the new State Department Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. It was also to promote a “whole of government” approach to security-assistance programs.
• After two years’ experience, publication of principles and guidelines for 1207 project applications should solve problems resulting from a lack of awareness of the program and confusion over leadership and application procedures.
• Adding USAID to the decision-making Technical Advisory Committee should remove the largest source of interagency tension that has troubled the program.
• Greater clarity is needed concerning the relative weight of the program’s priorities, which include security, counterterrorism, stabilization, and reconstruction and avoiding the need to deploy U.S. military forces.
• There is a need for the DOD and DOS to provide additional resources to embassies that are expected to complete a relatively complicated application form. There is also a need for the DOD to streamline the provision of funds so the money arrives in real time before circumstances change and projects cannot be implemented.
• Ultimately, the DOS and DOD need to honor the intent of Congress and request that Congress appropriate funds directly to the DOS for these projects.

About the Report

In January 2008, the U.S. Departments of State and Defense requested that the United States Institute of Peace conduct an independent assessment of the process by which projects funded under Section 1207 of the National Defense Authorization Acts of FY 2006 and FY 2007 were developed, reviewed, and approved for funding. They asked that the study include recommendations for changes in the application and approval procedures to ensure that project proposals were reviewed through an efficient, transparent, and well-understood interagency process. The Institute agreed to conduct the study because the 1207 program is an example of the U.S. military’s growing involvement in integrated “whole-of-government” approaches to U.S. security assistance programs. The study is based on interviews with staff members of the Senate and House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees and representatives from the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of State, and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Robert M. Perito is a Senior Program Officer with the Center for Post-Conflict Peace and Stability Operations at the United States Institute of Peace.