Distance in security force assistance

In this DIIS Working Paper we explore how Western approaches to security force assistance (SFA) have become increasingly focused on applying distance between the intervening state and the subject of intervention, focusing specifically on the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), as the foremost Western security organisation.

We argue that SFA can be understood as a principal-agent relationship as one actor, the West, provides resources and, in return, expects to be able to influence events on the ground. To do this, we zoom in on two key developments in contemporary military interventions. First, that military intervention is outsourced to Southern partners, and second, the use of ever-more sophisticated technologies that allow interveners to maintain physical distance to the battlefield.

In the second part of the paper, we trace how SFA is done by the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI). This is an important test case for demonstrating the influential idea that the security of NATO member states can be ensured by stabilising the alliance’s periphery.