Humanitarian military aid functions partly to maintain overseas base access.

Evidence

Although the OCS must report the costs of all military operations overseas, I confirmed with the Pentagon that it omits around $550 million for counternarcotics operations. It also excludes the money spent on humanitarian and civic aid. Some of the humanitarian aid can be considered truly nonmilitary, but as a budget document explains, humanitarian operations crucially help “maintain a robust overseas presence” and obtain “access to regions important to U.S. interests.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 635

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the earlier note on humanitarian aid and ‘hearts and minds’ as instruments of base politics rather than pure charity.