The collapse of American-trained forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the inconsistent advising effort in Ukraine, have generated understandable skepticism of U.S. security cooperation. The track record of American military assistance, especially in building armies in developing nations, is a mixed bag at best. Cynical observers assert that many security cooperation exercises amount to little more than “random acts of touching.”
Much of this critique is valid. The past century of U.S. security cooperation is littered with failures, especially when one looks beyond the narrow realm of counterterrorism. American military advisory programs have an incurable habit of mirror imaging, to the fatal detriment of partners who try to master “the American way of war” without the American wealth it requires. But security cooperation missions can provide something that is often more valuable than partner capacity: credible information about partner forces.
The sudden collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Ukraine’s surprising repulse of Russia’s invasion, just six months apart, reminded the world that war is a fundamentally human and contingent activity. One army collapsed and one succeeded, one nation vanished and one endured, because of proficiency, morale, and leadership—all things that can’t be discerned by even the best satellites or signals intelligence.
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