Political Risk:
Moderate
Score:
61.5/100
Defence and Security Policy and Policy Transparency
Q1
75/100
Is there formal provision for effective and independent legislative scrutiny of defence policy?
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According to Article 1 Section 8 of the US Constitution, Congress has the power to raise and support the military, to declare war and…
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There are a number of criticisms levelled at Congress for not living up to its mandate as a check on the executive branch on…
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The legislature (Congress) is largely independent from influence of the military and the executive and there are laws in place to prevent lobbying by…
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Q2
75/100
Does the country have an identifiable and effective parliamentary defence and security committee (or similar such organisations) to exercise oversight?
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The House of Representatives and the Senate assign most defence oversight functions to the respective Armed Services Commitee of each house. The two committees…
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The two Armed Services Committees are comprised of party members from each party and, additionally, professional staff members who are not elected officials but…
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The congressional review of the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) took the form of the independent, bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy [1].…
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The SASC must meet at least once a month when Congress is in session and each meeting is open to the public unless the…
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The committees have congressional staff who support the committee oversight work. In 2018, the combined total of the staffs of the two committees was…
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In general, the DoD meets the requirements laid out in NDAAs and complies with congressional hearings and meetings. Relations between the Armed Services Committees…
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Q3
44/100
Is the country’s national defence policy or national security strategy debated and publicly available?
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The National Security Strategy Report (NSS) is published by the executive branch of the United States government [1]. It has been a congressionally mandated…
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The scope of congressional debate around the annual NDAA is generally fairly extensive and a search of the Congress records shows some debates and…
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There does not appear to have been any public consultation during the production of the National Defense Strategy prior to its publication in 2018.…
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The National Security Strategy Report is publicly available [1]. The National Defense Strategy is classified and therefore not publicly available, however, an unclassified summary…
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Q4
50/100
Do defence and security institutions have a policy, or evidence, of openness towards civil society organisations (CSOs) when dealing with issues of corruption?
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Under the Obama administration, there was the Department of Defense Open Government Plan as part of the Open Government National Action Plan [1]. While…
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The US Constitution protects the right to freedom of expression from government interference [1]. According to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour,…
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Each of the military services has their own public affairs unit, however, there is no evidence of public engagement specifically on the issue of…
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Q5
100/100
Has the country signed up to the following international anti-corruption instruments: UNCAC and the OECD Convention?
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The United States signed and ratified the UNCAC Convention (in December 2003 and October 2006 respectively) [1]. The US is a significant defence exporter…
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According to the Review of the Implementation of UNCAC in 2012 [1], the US has significantly strengthened its overall anti-corruption measures. Only a few…
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Q6
75/100
Is there evidence of regular, active public debate on issues of defence? If yes, does the government participate in this debate?
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Outside of the government, there is sustained debate on issues of defence by a wide range of academic, CSO and media organisations with specialist…
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The Department of Defense runs a public liasion programme, the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC), which is designed to share knowledge on national defence…
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Q7
25/100
Does the country have an openly stated and effectively implemented anti-corruption policy for the defence sector?
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There is no anti-corruption policy in place, beyond a number of laws (such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which applies to the…
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This indicator is marked ‘Not Applicable’ since there is no anti-corruption policy for the government or the defence sector and therefore it cannot be…
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Q8
75/100
Are there independent, well-resourced, and effective institutions within defence and security tasked with building integrity and countering corruption?
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The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (OIG DoD) is an independent authority within the DoD, with the mandate to ‘provide leadership and…
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The Inspector General of the DoD is mandated to be a civilian appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate [1]. However,…
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The DoD Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) is a well-established and comprehensive organisation. It publishes extensive reports, undertakes multiple audits and investigations and…
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Q9
NS/100
Does the public trust the institutions of defence and security to tackle the issue of bribery and corruption in their establishments?
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This indicator is not assigned a score in the GDI. According to the Pew Research Center 2018 survey on ‘The Public, the Political System…
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Q10
17/100
Are there regular assessments of the areas of greatest corruption risk for ministry and armed forces personnel, and are the findings used as inputs to the anti-corruption policy?
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No defence-specific assessment of corruption risks has been undertaken at any point in recent history. However, the DoD OIG produces an annual ‘Top DoD…
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No defence-specific assessment of corruption risks has been undertaken at any point in recent history. The ‘Top DoD Management Challenges’ report is produced annually.…
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No defence-specific assessment of corruption risks has been undertaken at any point in recent history. There is no evidence that risk assessment findings are…
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Defence Budgets
Q11
92/100
Does the country have a process for acquisition planning that involves clear oversight, and is it publicly available?
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A weapon system acquistion is composed of three mechanisms in order to establish a budget and acquire the system. The three separate mechanisms are:…
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The directives which govern the acquisition planning process (as outlined in 11A) are made publicly available by the DoD. The Defense Acquisition University (the…
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Congress generally assumes an active role in acquisition planning, in addition to its continued efforts to undertake reform of the DoD acquisition processes [1].…
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Q12
100/100
Is the defence budget transparent, showing key items of expenditure? And it is provided to the legislature in a timely fashion?
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The defence budget proposed for the fiscal year 2020 contains disaggregated information on expenditure across the different services and includes information on personnel, operations…
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The 2020 defence budget proposal was released in March 2019 in advance of the fiscal year beginning on 1st October 2019, so seven months…
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Q13
88/100
Is there a legislative committee (or other appropriate body) responsible for defence budget scrutiny and analysis in an effective way?
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For the defence budget, funds must be ‘appropriated’ by the Appropriations Committees of the House and Senate. Each committee has various subcommittees which deal…
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The two subcommittees present amendments to the budget and, in some cases, can prohibit certain expenditures. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees work separately…
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Q14
75/100
Is the approved defence budget made publicly available? In practice, can citizens, civil society, and the media obtain detailed information on the defence budget?
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The US defence budget is first published as a budget request by the President for approval by Congress. The 2020 budget, for example, was…
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The vast majority of the budget is actively published and disclosed via the website of the Defense Comptroller [1]. An overview is provided alongside…
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The DoD publicly publishes a huge amount of information on the budget. The issue for the public is knowing what to look for and…
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Q15
25/100
Are sources of defence income other than from central government allocation (from equipment sales or property disposal, for example) published and scrutinised?
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Appropriated funds can include funds, e.g. general funds, working capital funds (WCF), trust funds and special funds [1]. Additionally, the DoD can use non-appropriated…
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Non-central sources of income appear to be a minor occurrence, and very little information could be found regarding either the funds themselves or oversight.…
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Sources of income from funds or personal property sales do not receive much public interest as they appear to be quite minor relative to…
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Q16
25/100
Is there an effective internal audit process for defence ministry expenditure (that is, for example, transparent, conducted by appropriately skilled individuals, and subject to parliamentary oversight)?
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The Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General (DoD OIG) conducts oversight of the department and, as part of its mandate, produces internal…
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As outlined in 16A, until FY 2018, no agency-wide financial audit had been undertaken by an internal or external audit body. As such, this…
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As outlined in 16A, until FY 2018, no agency-wide financial audit had been undertaken by an internal or external audit body. As such, this…
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As outlined in 16A, until FY 2018, no agency-wide financial audit had been undertaken by an internal or external audit body. As such, this…
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Q17
69/100
Is there effective and transparent external auditing of military defence expenditure?
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In 2018, the Pentagon underwent its first department-wide audit, which was conducted through a combination of external and internal audit bodies [1]. The audit…
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The 2018 audit was undertaken by the DoD Office of the Inspector General, as well as five independent public accounting firms overseen by the…
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The DoDIG published a report entitled ‘Understanding the Results of the Audit’, which details the key takeaways, material weaknesses and recommendations from the 2018…
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In response to the 2018 audit, the DoD is piloting a new financial database to better track the organisation’s transactions [1]. Furthermore, in FY…
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Nexus of Defence and National Assets
Q18
67/100
Is there evidence that the country’s defence institutions have controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation and, if so, are these interests publicly stated and subject to scrutiny?
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There is no legislation that prohibits defence institutions from having controlling or financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural resource exploitation.The Department…
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Five major federal agencies administer land and resources, of which the DoD manages the smallest area [1]. This land is used for military bases…
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No information could be found regarding cases of defence personnel being involved in businesses related to natural resource exploitation in the United States.
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There is no outstanding evidence that the Department of Defense, or other defence institutions, have financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural…
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There is no outstanding evidence that the Department of Defense, or other defence institutions, have financial interests in businesses associated with the country’s natural…
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Organised Crime
Q19
50/100
Is there evidence, for example through media investigations or prosecution reports, of a penetration of organised crime into the defence and security sector? If no, is there evidence that the government is alert and prepared for this risk?
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There is very little evidence that organised crime has penetrated the defence sector. In 2011, the FBI reported that gang members have been identified…
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The ‘Fat Leonard’ case was investigated by the NCIS as well as the Justice Department [1]. Beyond this, there is no explicit evidence of…
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Q20
92/100
Is there policing to investigate corruption and organised crime within the defence services and is there evidence of the effectiveness of this policing?
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The Defense Criminal Investigative Service is the civilian federal law enforcement agency mandated to investigate matters relating to the DoD, including public corruption [1].…
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The DCIS website and various media articles show a variety of cases undertaken by the DCIS and the respective service police forces [1,2,3,4]. DoD…
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Between FY 2015 and FY 2019, the DCIS closed 304 cases related to public corruption [1]. In FY 2017, for example, the DCIS conducted…
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Control of Intelligence Services
Q21
75/100
Are the policies, administration, and budgets of the intelligence services subject to effective and independent oversight?
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The United States Intelligence Community (IC) is made up of 17 intelligence agencies; two of these are independent – the Office of the Director…
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According to its website, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) meets twice a week in closed sessions to discuss intelligence policies, agency…
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Q22
17/100
Are senior positions within the intelligence services filled on the basis of objective selection criteria, and are appointees subject to investigation of their suitability and prior conduct?
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The leaders of the Intelligence Community (IC) are appointed by the President, and the White House has the authority to hire and fire them…
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Given that the leaders of the Intelligence Community are selected by the President, there is the possibility that there is bias in the selection.…
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There is no hiring panel or selection committee as the candidates for leadership positions are nominated by the President. The Senate Select Committee on…
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Export Controls
Q23
50/100
Does the government have a well-scrutinised process for arms export decisions that aligns with Articles 7.1.iv, 11.5, and 15.6 of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)?
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The US signed the Arms Trade Treaty in September 2013 under the Obama adminstration [1], however, it did not ratify the treaty. In April…
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Given that the US has not ratified the treaty and is now withdrawing, this indicator is scored ‘Not Applicable’ [1,2].
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Upcoming arms exports are legislated under the ‘Arms Export Control Act’ (AECA) [1]. According to Section 36(b), Congress must be formally notified 30 calendar…
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Lobbying in Defence
The Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) of 1995 regulates lobbying activity in the US [1] and enshrines the right to petition the government [2]. It…
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It does not seem that public officials in defence institutions or public officials in general, such as members of Congress, have to publish details…
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According to the US Code, Title 2 § 1603, a lobbyist or the lobby organisation must be registered with the Secretary of the Senate…
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The Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) is enforced by the Secretary of the Senate and/or the Clerk of the House of Representatives, who can refer…
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