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Events • July 14, 2014 

# When Is Foreign Internal Defense (FID) a Smart Policy Tool for Washington? 

In an era of fiscal constraints and concerns about direct military involvement abroad, helping others defend themselves is an attractive option to address America’s global security concerns. Efforts to train, equip, and advise partner nations are elements of foreign internal defense (FID) policies. But when is FID a smart tool? Does FID produce more effective and self-sufficient partners, at lower political and financial costs to Americans? Or, does FID pull the United States into local fights, and risk outsourcing U.S. security interests to partners with limited capabilities and whose political interests may not align with ours? Please join us as the panelists discuss these and other questions.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

##### David S. Maxwell 

##### Sean McFate 

##### Vanda Felbab-Brown 

##### James B. Story 

[![Media Name: jenk-cropped.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/authors/crops/jenk-cropped.jpg?itok=vjBQiH00)](/people/jennifer-keister) 

##### [Jennifer Keister](/people/jennifer-keister)

Former Visiting Research Fellow