WASHINGTON: Disaster relief, medical assistance, and other humanitarian missions can provide a low-cost way for the military to build US influence in Asia and elsewhere, a key part of the administration’s new national security strategy, but this “soft power” approach is complicated both by civilian aid groups’ suspicion of the military and by looming budget cuts.

“These dollars will never go to AID [the US Agency for International Development] if they are cut from DoD [the Department of Defense],” warned former Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, now president of the prestigious Center for Strategic and International Studies. “They are in danger of being lost.” Keep reading →