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Home > Open Access Journals > JSS > Vol. 17 > No. 4 (2024)

 

Author Biography

Matteo Garofalo is a Procurement Contracts Officer with the Naval Air Systems Command of the U.S. Navy with a regional focus on Asia-Pacific conflicts. He received his Bachelors in International Business from the American University Kogod School of Business and his Masters in Intelligence and Homeland Security Studies from the University of Maryland. He has published research on U.S. national security doctrine and Far East policy.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.17.4.2315

Subject Area Keywords

Defense policy, Democracy and democatization, Foreign policy, International relations, Military affairs

Abstract

The Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program is one of two systems by which foreign nations can purchase U.S. military technologies, and it is additionally the largest component of U.S. foreign security cooperation assistance. As such, it functions as a key tool in the arsenal of U.S. foreign policy, and is therefore tasked with supporting foreign policy objectives, such as the promotion of democracy abroad. This study analyzes all nations to have received FMS sales (for which data has been made available) to determine if either the receipt of FMS contracts impacts their level of democracy, or, alternatively, if changes in their level of democracy impacts their likelihood of engaging in the FMS program. This study finds a negative correlation between democracy and the receipt of an FMS sale in the previous year, as well as a negative correlation between democracy and the likelihood of receiving an FMS sale in the following year. However, the degree of correlation is minor, indicating that – if a causal relationship does exist between FMS and democracy – then this relationship lacks predictive power.

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