The Hidden Political Economy of Security Cooperation

This paper examines how external security cooperation (SC) can reshape the political economies of fragile states. Often framed as a neutral transfer of training and equipment, SC is inherently political-economic, redistributing rents, reconfiguring authority, and altering elite bargains. The paper advances a four-mechanism framework—patronage, veto players, deterritorialisation of authority, and legitimacy—to explain how assistance can produce political dislocation, where formal capacity increases while social legitimacy erodes. Drawing on cases from South Vietnam, Afghanistan, and West Africa, it shows how technocratic reforms are absorbed into patron-client networks, empower spoilers, and weaken accountability. The paper concludes that durable outcomes depend less on aid volume than on aligning programs with political realities and prioritising legitimacy alongside capacity.