Base Nation

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Vine (Island of Shame), an anthropologist and scholar of American military policy, focuses on the cultural and political role of the global U.S. base structure. The U.S. military maintains, by Vine's count, approximately 800 bases "in more than 70 countries," discussion of which is generally confined to the contexts of foreign policy and national security. Vine takes an alternate tack, investigating the bases' financial and human costs to the U.S. and host countries. Military bases, he argues, "perpetuate a 21st-century form of colonialism, tarnishing our country's ability to be a model for democracy." Too often they are vestigial, mostly relics of the Cold War created from a "newly expansive concept of ânational security'â" and surviving more from inertia than intention. Their deterrent value is often marginal, and their impact often catastrophic. For security reasons, foreign bases are self-contained, culturally isolated "Little Americas." They displace local populations, enable "massive human rights abuses" by "murderous antidemocratic regimes," inflict "profound environmental damage," and nurture an "exploitative sex industry" that reinforces a culture of "militarized masculinity." Moreover, what has proved to be a huge cost to taxpayers has enriched a small community of war profiteers. Vine recommends comprehensive shutdowns, and his presentation is eloquent and persuasive. Maps & illus.

June 1, 2015
America's seldom thought of, and largely misunderstood, military outposts around the globe are brought into sharp relief. The idea that it costs more than $100 billion each year to maintain the United States' roughly 800 military installations spread throughout the world is easy enough to grasp, and there are many who will say that the hefty price tag is well worth the cost. However, Vine (Anthropology/American Univ.; Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia, 2009) effectively argues that the true costs of all those bases-whether euphemistically called FOBs, lily pads, or a host of other monikers-encompass a lot more than what is in Uncle Sam's wallet. Ostensibly meant to protect American security at the close of World War II, Vine demonstrates how both the rationale behind the rise of U.S. military bases abroad and their implementation run counter to many closely held American ideals. Readers on the left will be particularly chagrined to learn that liberal lion Franklin Roosevelt orchestrated a plan that regurgitated and repackaged old-time colonialism in the name of national security. The author also illuminates the series of forced evacuations, expulsions, and evictions that devastated whole societies all across the Pacific, Latin America, and beyond, and he shows how little the government had learned after the Trail of Tears 100 years prior. Citizens could still wave the flag and extoll democratic principals here at home, but Vine further demonstrates how they did so oblivious to the autocrats that continued to fill the upper tiers of the American military. The powers that be may have successfully swept many previous sins under the carpet in the wake of World War II, but according to Vine, continuing to maintain U.S. military bases around the world doesn't make any sense in a post-9/11 world. A frank, significant look at how the proliferation of foreign military bases has "helped lock us inside a permanently militarized society that in many ways has made all of us less safe and less secure."

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June 15, 2015

The United States started to acquire basing rights around the world during the 19th century and greatly expanded the practice during World War I. There are now over 100 international locations where troops are stationed; some facilities are very large, others small and supposedly temporary. The sites are designed to allow the United States to project military power and contribute to stability and other foreign policy aims, as did the massive American bases in Germany during the Cold War. Prolific author Vine (anthropology, American Univ.; Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia) asserts that the bill for these outposts now approaches $100 billion per year, and in many cases it is far from clear that they benefit either the host country or this one. At Diego Garcia, for example, the United States and Britain negotiated a deal that expelled the native population, much to their disadvantage, from the islands. Disputes about the bases have also arisen in Japan, Guam, Pakistan, and Yemen. Vine forcefully challenges the utility, cost, morality, and success of the basing concept while also criticizing the military, industrial, and national security confluence for poor policy, rampant waste, and deceptive language and practice. VERDICT A well-documented nonpartisan study that is beneficial for military and foreign affairs collections.--Edwin Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS

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