War at arm’s length: How America can build effective partners through military assistance

Military assistance has a bad reputation, driven by costly failures to build effective partner militaries in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Vietnam. Yet despite that record, working through partner militaries remains a central part of U.S. strategy and when done effectively, it can deliver significant results for both the United States and its allies.  

In their new book, “War at Arm’s Length: How America Can Build Effective Partners Through Military Assistance,” Richard Bennet and Alexander Noyes offer a systematic look at military assistance in the 21st century, examining a frequently deployed but often misunderstood set of tools that allows the United States to leverage partner militaries to achieve national security goals. 

On June 2, 2026,  the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology at Brookings held a discussion between the authors and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities Mara Karlin, moderated by Michael E. O’Hanlon. Their conversation focused on the book’s themes, discussed the challenges of building effective partner forces, and explored the implications for U.S. national security policy in the years ahead.