Lily pad bases cluster in weak states with lax environmental laws and lower costs.

Evidence

Some of the attractiveness of the lily pad strategy, with its relative shift from large bases to smaller ones, has clearly been the lower costs involved, especially in the face of Pentagon budget cuts. Most lily pads are located in economically and politically weak countries that are more easily influenced by the economic benefits and political payoffs promised by bases, and where labor and other operating costs are lower than in more powerful countries such as Germany, Italy, and Japan. Poorer countries’ less stringent environmental regulations also make operations cheaper and easier. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 952

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader pattern of extractive/exploitative US power projection into weaker states seen throughout Base Nation.