US AID BUDGET TO EURASIA: A MONUMENT TO "INTER-AGENCY PETTINESS"
Joshua Kucera

EurasiaNet
Feb 12 2008
NY

Aid for almost every country in the former Soviet Union will be
falling in 2008, under the current foreign affairs budget released
by the US State Department. Much of the planned US assistance will go
toward helping independent-minded states in the region resist Russian
efforts to reassert its dominance in the Caspian Basin and elsewhere.

Even so, some Washington experts lament the drop-off in aid, and
describe the dwindling budgets in recent years as "monuments to weak
analysis, inter-agency pettiness, and trite bureaucratic formuli."

Overall, the budget for the Freedom Support Act, which provides aid
to former Soviet states, is $346 million for fiscal year 2009, which
actually starts on October 1, 2008. That is down from $396 million
in fiscal 2008, and $452 million the year before that.

The aid is heavily weighted toward countries with a pro-Western
orientation like Georgia and Ukraine, and it is designed "to promote
economic and energy independence, help diversify export markets,
and improve democratic governance in the face of increasing Russian
economic and political pressure," according to documents that the
State Department released to justify the budget.

Aid to Turkmenistan has been increased, though modestly. Freedom
Support Act aid, to support education, economic reform, civil society
reform and health care, went up from $5.4 million to $8 million.

Turkmenistan would also get a small amount of military aid – $150,000
for weapons and equipment – after being denied such aid last year.

"A new focus for assistance is Turkmenistan, where the funding
request is increased as the United States seeks to capitalize on new
opportunities to promote economic, democratic, and social sector reform
following the death of President Saparmurat Niyazov in December 2006,"
the State Department documents said. US officials are desperately
trying to woo Ashgabat into participating in the Trans-Caspian
Pipeline, an energy export route that could critically weaken the
Kremlin’s control of the oil & gas glow out of Central Asia. [For
background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The budget for assistance to Armenia is $24 million, down from $58
million disbursed in fiscal year 2008. Aid to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is down, as well.

Washington analysts bemoaned the meager budgets devoted to the
Caucasus and Central Asia. "Central Asia and the Caucasus present
largely Muslim societies that look positively to the West, maintain
secular governments, and are open to modern thinking. Any sensible
appreciation of the United States’ interests would lead to their
being given generous support. Instead, Washington itself is forcibly
weaning them from their US ties, using the budget as its tool," said
S. Frederick Starr, chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute
in Washington.

"Both the current and proposed budgets for Central Asia and the
Caucasus are monuments to weak analysis, inter-agency pettiness, and
trite bureaucratic formuli," Starr continued. "It is hard to imagine a
wider gulf between the US’s real interests and its budgetary actions."

Just a few years ago, the Bush administration cast itself as a
champion of global democratization. But now such rhetoric has all
but disappeared. "If Central Asia is among the ‘most authoritarian
regions,’" Starr asked, "why are we not investing more heavily in
programs to make it less so? And why are we paying prosperous and
authoritarian Russia for ineffective ‘conflict mitigation’ in the
North Caucasus when Russia itself is fomenting and abetting conflict
in the South Caucasus?"

Military aid to Eurasian countries rose slightly. Foreign Military
Financing, which funds weapons and equipment purchases, would go up to
$20.7 million from $17.5 million last year, driven mainly by increases
in Kazakhstan and Georgia. Under the budget proposal, Georgia would
get more than half of the entire region’s military aid, $11 million.

Funds for International Military Education and Training in the states
of the Caucasus and Central Asia would drop slightly, from $4.9
million last year to $4.7 million. Azerbaijan would get $900,000
as opposed to $300,000 for Armenia, both amounts similar to what
was disbursed last year. Armenian lobbying groups seized upon the
imbalance, despite the modest amounts.

"Given Azerbaijan’s increased war rhetoric, I have strong concerns with
giving any military aid to Azerbaijan, and we definitely should not
give them more than we’re providing Armenia," said Joe Knollenberg,
a Republican from Michigan and the head of the Congressional Armenia
Caucus, in a statement released by the Armenian Assembly of America.

Meanwhile, many of the states surrounding the Caucasus and Central
Asia stand to receive aid amounts that dwarf those to be given to
the former Soviet states. Afghanistan, for example, is to get $250
million in counter-narcotics money, down slightly from last year,
and $707 million to for democratization and economic development.

Meanwhile, military aid to Pakistan is due to reach $300 million,
the same level it has been at for several years, and Islamabad would
also get $453 million for democratization and economic development.

Washington also intends to spend $65 million to "support the
aspirations of the Iranian people for a democratic and open society
by promoting civil society, civic participation, media freedom and
freedom of information." It would also launch broadcasts of the Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty Azerbaijani service into Iran, where at
least a quarter of the population is ethnically Azeri.

"What’s troubling, but not unexpected, is this pull to crisis
situations like Afghanistan and Pakistan means that attention to
long-term goals to places like Central Asia is jeopardized. That’s
the thing that really stood out to me," said Sean Roberts, the
Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University. "It’s kind of
unfortunate that the short term trumps the long-term perspective.

It’s good that they’re planning to have some extra money allotted
to Turkmenistan, but it’s not that significant when you look at the
grand scheme of things."

Editor’s Note: Joshua Kucera is a Washington, DC,-based freelance
writer who specializes in security issues in Central Asia, the Caucasus
and the Middle East.