Strategic consulting and capacity building in US humanitarian policy

Abstract

Strategic advising and capacity building are closely interconnected, as they involve the deployment to foreign countries of American advisers who will act by strengthening democratization, attracting military and police contingents, civil administrators, providing humanitarian assistance, economic stabilization and infrastructure development. All of these instruments are aimed at strengthening American influence everywhere and are used by Washington through the activities of American advisers dealing working in developing and post-conflict countries. The practice of the U.S. strategic advising and capacity building exists since the 1940s, during the Cold war it was aimed at confrontation with the socialist system. The role of advisers in advancing interests is enormous and ubiquitous: from Ukraine to Syria, from Somalia to Haiti. It is closely related to other instruments of American humanitarian policy: public diplomacy, educational exchanges, development assistance. The transplant of US civil society concepts to foreign countries is doubtful, but meets American goals. The author evaluates US system of strategic advising and capacity building analysing activities of federal ministries and agencies. The hypothesis of the article that Washington would use these instrumwnts more broadly, and theyvwould be oriented more explicitly towards national defence interests. The article includes SWOT analysis of the US system of strategic advising and capacity building.