Lily pads serve as back doors for political and economic influence.
Evidence
Lily pads are about more than military dominance alone. They are also a kind of back door to introduce into host countries a range of military tools and activities whose ultimate ends are as much political and economic as they are martial. Because of the contact and negotiations that lily pads generally require, they provide an opportunity to deepen ties between the U.S. and foreign militaries. A lily pad can lead to increased training and humanitarian assistance activities, which can lead to military exercises, which can lead to arms sales and much more. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1011
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Builds on the chapter’s earlier account of General Wilhelm using a counterdrug lily pad to expand military contact.
Related
- Lily pads self-reproduce and trigger base races that heighten conflict risk. (similarity 0.89)
- Forward-based lily pads near rival borders risk provoking reciprocal responses and blowback. (similarity 0.88)
- U.S. lily pads turn allied militaries into proxy adjuncts that do the fighting (similarity 0.87)
- Lily pad networks reproduce full military capacity while avoiding bases’ visible political costs. (similarity 0.87)
- Lily pads quietly expand US military reach into new conflict zones. (similarity 0.86)
- Lily pads grant the U.S. Subic-era access without the political costs of large garrisons (similarity 0.84)
- Small military outposts advance U.S. business and deepen host-country dependence. (similarity 0.83)
- Lily pads provide redundancy so base denial by one host can be bypassed (similarity 0.83)
- Lily pad bases cluster in weak states with lax environmental laws and lower costs. (similarity 0.82)
- The forward strategy transformed the US from opposing standing armies to global military patrol. (similarity 0.82)
- The Pentagon shifted to small covert ‘lily pad’ bases to evade local opposition. (similarity 0.81)
- Small lily pad bases routinely expand into behemoth installations. (similarity 0.80)
- Closing big bases drove the Pentagon toward smaller lily pad facilities (similarity 0.80)
- Smaller lily pad bases still harm local communities despite hopes they would avoid controversy. (similarity 0.78)
- Lily pad base rhetoric carries racialized frontier and civilizing overtones. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Forward-based lily pads near rival borders risk provoking reciprocal responses and blowback.
#expands(0.70) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1021 - Lily pads self-reproduce and trigger base races that heighten conflict risk.
#expands(0.60) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1020