Base Politics: Conceptual Framework

US military bases overseas sustain the projection of The United States as a superpower on a global scale. Ranging from full-sized townships with multiple facilities to small installations for storing pieces of strategic equipment, US military bases around the globe serve as multipliers of the capacity of the United States to act as a superpower in the international system (Lutz, 2009). But in order to sustain a network of bases, the United States has had to establish different forms of legal and semilegal arrangements, where the host nation permits the use of a part of its territory for US installations. In many cases, these arrangements are not problematic, but in some cases they become major problems for the US military. First, host nations might demand increased rents or benefits from the United States in order to open a new base or maintain an existing one, and the threat of eviction is always present. Second, even when governments in the host nation are willing to maintain a US base, domestic opposition might turn it into a political issue and challenge the government on the grounds that it is compromising the sovereignty of the country.