U.S. Continues to Support Countries Violating Human Rights

The other day, the Washington Post’s editorial board highlighted the blatant human rights violations of Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan and the international community’s acquiescence. “The repressive regimes commit such abuses,” the editorial board argues, “because they calculate there will be no cost.”

The editorial notes that in Azerbaijan, where the first European Games are being held, the regime has jailed its own journalists, banned NGOs, and shut down the local Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe office to hinder any form of watchdog operations. Meanwhile, the Saudis hosted the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jiddah to discuss the implementation of a United Nations resolution that backed religious freedom and tolerance, and just three days later the Saudi Supreme Court upheld the sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for Raif Badawi, a blogger who was arrested for allegedly insulting Islam.

Although the article does not focus on it, the U.S. relationship to these countries, by providing military and police aid and selling arms, not only further legitimizes the regimes, but also has the potential to facilitate their abuses.

Here’s a quick look at U.S. military and police aid and arms sales to Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia.

U.S. military and police aid and arms sales to Azerbaijan is not particularly high, compared to other countries, but that does not make it any less significant. In FY 2014, the U.S. provided $4.5 million in military and police aid to Azerbaijan. The main focus of the United States’ aid to Azerbaijan is for training and equipment to help with counterterrorism and interoperability with NATO forces, with $2.7 million provided through the Foreign Military Financing program, $755,000 through Nonproliferation, Anti-Terrorism, Demining and Related Programs (NADR) and $211,190 through the Combating Terrorism Fellowship Program in FY 2014.

In FY 2012 and FY 2013, the United States sold and delivered just over $2 million in arms and training to Azerbaijan, almost entirely through the Direct Commercial Sales program. In addition to actual deliveries, the United States approved licenses for the sale of over $75 million in 2012 and $108 million in 2013, making Azerbaijan the top recipient of arms sales licenses in Central Eurasia in both years, by a significant margin. In 2014, the value of licenses approved through Direct Commercial Sales to Azerbaijan dropped dramatically to a little less than $1 million.

The United States’ support for the Saudi regime is significantly higher. From FY 2009 to FY 2013, the United States delivered $10.8 billion in military equipment and training. And just last year, the Saudi’s received an additional $225 million worth of equipment through the Direct Commercial Sales program, with over $2.2 billion in licenses approved for future delivery. Saudi Arabia’s arms purchases range from advanced military equipment like fighter jets and air refueling aircraft to small arms and riot gear. While Saudi Arabia does not receive much military and police aid from the United States, they do receive some assistance through the International Military Education and Training program in order to qualify for a reduced price in the Foreign Military Sales trainings, mostly technical and operational, they purchase.

The editorial board argues that international acquiescence is only empowering regimes such Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, because “why hesitate if there are no consequences.” The military and police assistance and cooperation that these countries benefit from can give the U.S. influence and leverage in encouraging compliance of international human rights, but it must be monitored carefully. And international pressure does work as we recently saw with Badawi’s lashings postponed again today. Defense cooperation can be valuable for national security, but aligning with repressive regimes risks inadvertent consequences at the expensive of innocent citizens.