Base site selection tracks landowner powerlessness more than strategic need.

Evidence

While the military is generally driven by strategic considerations when deciding what regions should have bases, within a given region the selection of specific base locations is heavily influenced by the ease of land acquisition. The ease with which the military can acquire land tends to be strongly linked to the relative powerlessness of that land’s inhabitants, which in turn is usually linked to factors such as their nationality, skin color, and population size. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 213

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s whole-book thread on how bases harm marginalized populations; also echoes the ‘Inequality lost its historical justification’ argument from Frankfurt School notes about domination targeting the dispossessed.