The Compacts of Free Association (COFA)

The relationship between the U.S. and the Freely Associated States (FAS) has been determined by the Compacts of Free Association (COFA) for over forty years. Today, substantial annual grant and trust funding is provided to the FAS to support a variety of sectors in each country. Below is a more detailed explanation of the development of these relationships as well as some of the specific components of COFA which are relevant to my research study.

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History

The end of WWII marked the beginning of undeniable U.S. hegemony in the world-system; it was also the beginning of U.S. control of the Pacific Islands.

Following the defeat of the Axis Powers, the U.S. recognized the importance of maintaining a strategic position in the Pacific. Consequently, from 1947 to 1986, the islands of Micronesia scattered throughout the Oceania region, were governed by the U.S. under the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI) (Hunt, 2024).

It quickly became evident that mitigating U.S. vulnerability in the Pacific required the development and preservation of intensive military and political controls in the Oceania region. In response, the U.S. adopted the ‘island chain strategy’” (Cannon, 2021, p. 245), setting up military bases from California to the Philippines to prevent competing governments, such as Russia's and China's, from gaining access to those locations (Hunt, 2024; Lum & Tupuola, 2024).

In the decades that followed, the islands experienced various forms of U.S. dominance and exploitation. For example, during the escalation of the Cold War, the U.S. used several atolls in the Marshall Islands as nuclear and ballistic missile testing sites (Cannon, 2021; Hunt, 2024). As tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. grew between 1946 and 1958, the U.S. conducted 67 nuclear weapons tests in the region (Bahng, 2020). This rendered islands there uninhabitable and caused the forced relocation of many natives living on the affected atolls (Bahng, 2020; Cannon, 2021).

Click HERE to read an excerpt from my proposal about Bikini and Enewetak Atolls.

However, while the U.S. executed strategic governance of the TTPI and established its military presence, anti-colonial sentiment was growing in the Pacific Islands. In the 1960s, delegates from the TTPI formed the Congress of Micronesia and ultimately divided the islands into what they are today (Paskal, 2024).

The FSM and the RMI remained under the administration of the U.S. until finally gaining their independence in 1986 (Puas, 2021), followed by Palau in 1994 (Morris et al., 2022). These now sovereign, independent countries are often mischaracterized as small compact states however, they include large oceanic zones that, when combined together, make up a vast marine area that is comparable in size to the U.S. (Hunt, 2024).

These waters were of critical geographical importance to the U.S. and a major component of global safety and security. So, in an effort to support democracy while still preserving its military presence, the U.S. created the COFA agreements.

These agreements solved several challenges facing the newly established nations. Despite achieving political sovereignty, the islands' economies were poorly developed and still heavily dependent on U.S. support (Puas & D’arcy, 2021). Furthermore, without their own armed forces, significant U.S. military presence throughout the region provided necessary security and protection for the small islands (Paskal, 2024).

With these factors in mind, Micronesian leaders signed the COFA agreements, ensuring political independence for their islands in exchange for U.S. military control, economic supremacy, and political domination (Hunt, 2024; Paskal, 2024; Puas & D’arcy, 2021).

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COFA - The Basics

At the time COFA was established, the intention of U.S. support was to build the islands’ economies, protect them from further foreign invasion, and to promote self-sustainability throughout the region (Cannon, 2021; Paskal, 2024). However, since its implementation, substantial economic assistance has only made the islands more dependent on U.S. support (Hunt, 2024; Lum & Tupuola, 2024; Paskal, 2024).

Key Stipulations

• The agreements are voluntary and can be cancelled by any parties at any time.

• The U.S. retains retains the right to operate military bases in the FAS and make unilateral security decisions whenever necessary

• Military provisions can only be rescinded with U.S. consent and if that were to occur, the FAS is under the constraint of indefinite military denial and are not allowed to entertain military forces from any other nations.

The U.S. provides the following:

• Security guarantees for the entire region

• Term limited grant funding through the Department of the Interior (DOI) to promote advancements in infrastructure, the environment, private sector development, and capacity building in the public

• Term limited trust funding to encourage long-term economic growth and fiscal sustainability

• Technical Assistance Program (TAP) and Maintenance Assistance Program (MAP) grants for short-term non-capital projects

• Government agency services including the Weather Service, Postal Service (USPS), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

FAS citizens are:

• Free to live, work, and study in the U.S. or any of its territories without a visa

• Able to serve in the U.S. military and are eligible to receive benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA)

  • Note: military service rates per capita are higher in the FAS than in most U.S. states and territories (Hunt, 2024).

Migrants are eligible for:

• U.S. federal programs including Pell Grants, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) if they reside in one of the fifty states or the District of Columbia

• Families who meet the federal low-income guidelines may also take advantage of Head Start programs which provide developmental services for children from birth to age five

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds, should they be affected by a disaster and need assistance

Higher education students can:

• Receive in-state tuition regardless of residential status

• Apply for federal student aid by simply verifying their noncitizen status and completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)

• Apply for Pell Grants, Federal Work Study (FWS), and the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (FSEOG) under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, regardless of where they choose to study

• Apply for U.S. based scholarships such as Fulbright and the U.S.-South Pacific Scholarship Program

• Utilize the GI Bill if they are veterans

Other Significant Details

• FAS citizens cannot vote in U.S. elections.

• Public schooling K-12 is state funded through compact grants and mirrors the U.S. education system (Institute of Education Sciences, 2021). This includes standardized curriculums taught in English, academic assessments at all grade levels, and review systems for both students and instructors.

• FAS veterans seeking healthcare at a VHA facility must travel to a U.S. state or territory despite not being eligible for travel reimbursement.

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COFA Today

Since its inception, the U.S. has reported more than $6 billion in grant assistance and trust fund contributions to the three states, constituting about 80% of U.S. assistance to the entire Pacific region (as of FY 2023), (Tupuola, 2024).

The new 20-year agreement (2023-2043) promises economic aid of:

• $889 million to Palau

• $3.3 billion to the FSM

• $2.3 billion to the RMI

• $634 million to ensure the continuous operation of the U.S. postal service

Currently, the U.S.:

• Operates the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site at U.S. Army Garrison-Kwajalein Atoll in the RMI

• Is building a high-frequency radar system in Palau

• Plans to begin conducting military exercises on the island of Yap in the FSM

Additional Funding and Security Services

• In 2024, COFA renewals extended financial support and allocated aid amounting in approximately seven billion dollars to be distributed over the next twenty years.

• In the Biden Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024, all COFA funding was included in the Foreign Affairs Budget to address strategic competition with the [People’s Republic of China] PRC.

• The CONVENE Act (2023) requires the U.S. to establish national security councils in the FAS.

• The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act (2024) authorizes an undetermined amount of financial support for the FAS out of the Countering PRC Influence Fund.

In a study conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (2022), researchers found that trust funds in the FSM and the RMI may not be sustainable and both nations could experience zero distributions in one or more years before 2034.

For more information on COFA visit the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of State.

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Relevance to the Study

Through its political and economic relationships with the FAS, the U.S. exerts dominance over the region and influences governmental and social developments. As in the Latin American, Arab, and African regions, the effects of Western political systems and economic dependency have created persistent financial deficiencies throughout the region (Osman, 2024; Yende & Ntini, 2022). For the U.S. and the FAS specifically, the term ‘compact colonialism’ is used to describe how the U.S. controls the FAS through its own form of neocolonialism.

Through COFA, the U.S. exerts its power by exercising military, political, and economic controls, cultural influence, and humanitarian indifference (Hunt, 2024). For women in the FAS, the social and political systems shaped by decades of compact colonialism have created a perpetual cycle of oppression. This ongoing marginalization continues to create barriers towards achieving gender equality throughout the islands.

As a result, many Micronesians have migrated to the U.S. to join family members living there and pursue higher education and professional opportunities that are nonexistent in their native states (Eria et al., 2022). Several researchers (Eria, et al., 2022; Hunt, 2024; McDonald et al., 2024) have evaluated the present circumstances in the FAS and reported persistent gender inequalities throughout the region stemming from various socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors.

These systems ultimately create enduring circumstances that contribute to the marginalization of women living there and ultimately prevents them from pursuing higher education.

My research will account for the particular relationship between Palau, the FSM, the RMI, and the U.S., as established by COFA, and lend valuable insight into how this arrangement impacts academic opportunities for women in the FAS.

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References

Bahng, A. (2020). The Pacific proving grounds and the proliferation of settler environmentalism. Journal of Transnational American Studies, 11(2). https://doi.org/10.5070/T8112049580

Cannon, S.E. (2021). Climate change denial and the jeopardised interest of the United States in the Freely Associated States of Micronesia. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 62(2), 242-258. https://doi.org/10.1111/apv.12295

Eria, J., Hofman, R., & Smith, S. (2022). Micronesian conceptions of home and gender in Chuuk and the US: Between the presence of absent islanders and island imaginaries abroad. Pacific Geographies, 58, 11-18. https://doi.org/10.23791/581118

Hunt, E. (2024). Compact colonialism: U.S. neocolonialism in Micronesia in the early twenty-first century. Postcolonial Studies, 1-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/13688790.2023.2261705

Lum, T., & Tupuola, J. G. (2024). The Freely Associated States and issues for Congress. Congressional Research Service: Report, 1–18.

McDonald, K., Cash McGinley, H. L., Abraham, D., Kapiriel, S.F., & Lorrin, M. (2024). Characterizing family planning utilization in adult women and adolescents in Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 28(7), 1178–1187. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-024-03906-6

Morris, C.T., Kellam, A., Spangler, E., Shannon, R.A., & Mechol, R. Caught between worlds: Assessing generational change in Palauan foodways post-independence. Ecology of Food and Nutrition, 61(2), 235-249. https://doi.org/10.1080/03670244.2021.1982710

Osman, O. (2024). Western domination, destructive governance, and the perpetual development crisis in the Arab region. World Review of Political Economy, 15(1), 82-122. https://doi.org/10.13169/worlrevipoliecon.15.1.0082

Paskal, C. (2024). Protecting the corridor of freedom to America’s Asian border. Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, 7(4), 207-220.

Puas, G. (2021). Federated States of Micronesia. Contemporary Pacific, 33(1), 154-160. https://doi.org/10.1353/cp.2021.0006

Puas, G., & D’arcy, P. (2021). Micronesia and the rise of China: Realpolitik meets the reef. Journal of Pacific History, 56(3), 274-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223344.2021.1949780

Tupuola, J.G. (2024). The Freely Associated States and issues for Congress. [PDF]. Congressional Research Service. https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48311

U.S. Government Accountability Office. (2022). Compacts of Free Association: Implications of planned ending of some U.S. economic assistance. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104436?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Yende, N., & Ntini, E. (2022). Underdevelopment of the underdeveloped: Implications of dependency theory in relationships among nations in the contemporary world. African Journal of Development Studies, 12(2), 207-227. https://doi.org/10.31920/2634-3649/2022/v12n2a9