Joint military exercises function as a path to permanent access without formal bases.

Evidence

The Filipino security analyst Herbert Docena explains, “U.S. military strategists consider these training exercises as a way of securing on-again, off-again, but continuous access to the country where they are training.” He quotes former Pacific Command commander Admiral Thomas Fargo as saying, “Access over time can develop into habitual use of certain facilities by deployed U.S. forces with the eventual goal of being guaranteed use in a crisis, or permission to pre-position logistics stocks and other critical material in strategic forward locations.” Indeed, a separate 2002 Mutual Logistics Support Agreement gave U.S. forces the right to pre-position weapons and equipment, build structures, and organize full logistical services in the country. A 2001 agreement also provided access to Philippines airspace, airfields, sea lanes, and harbors; U.S. naval vessels now make near constant port visits. As in Honduras, medical and humanitarian activities have offered additional opportunities to train U.S. troops in regions where they might one day be involved in combat, while at the same time winning locals’ trust and creating local intelligence networks. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 985

Categorization

• XREF: Directly evidences the lily-pad thesis developed throughout this book: exercises graduate into habitual use, prepositioning, and de facto permanent presence.
• SEED: An essay angle: how ‘training exercises’ and ‘access agreements’ quietly replace formal basing as a legal circumvention, across the Philippines, Honduras, and African lily pads.