What’s Next For the Iraqi Police?
Last Friday, Defense News reported that as of October 2011, the State Department will resume responsibility for managing U.S. police training and advising efforts in Iraq, a task overseen by the Department of Defense since 2004. The shift, a function of the broader changes underway in the United States’ role and presence in Iraq, could have some serious implications for the prospects of the long-term U.S-Iraqi strategic partnership.
In recent years, U.S. forces have played a critical role in shaping Iraq’s security sector, expanding capacity and providing strategic guidance within the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, and partnering U.S. military police units with elements of the Iraqi police. The State Department contribution has been minimal by comparison, and dominated by contractors.
The new State-run effort will reportedly focus exclusively on professionalization, leader development, and special skills training. In terms of personnel, “the program will involve a mix of up to 2,000 State Department and other government employees and contractors, including private security providers who will operate from three main bases and make trips to about 50 police offices and training academies.”
Given the State Department’s history of mismanagement and lax oversight of its police training contracts in both Iraq and Afghanistan, its new lead role in this effort is cause for concern. The resources likely to be allocated to the program — State requested $517m in the supplemental and $294m in its FY11 budget — seem slight in light of the continued support Iraq’s security forces will no doubt demand.
All the more reason why the coming year will be critical in the development of Iraq’s security sector; the United States can’t afford to let its investment in the country’s police over the last six years crumble once our forces depart.
