New bases near China and Russia may create the threats they guard against
Evidence
During the Cold War, there was an argument to be made that to some extent U.S. bases in Europe and Asia played a legitimate defensive role. In the absence of a superpower enemy today, however, the argument that bases many thousands of miles from U.S. shores are necessary to defend the United States—or even its allies—is much harder to sustain. To the contrary, the global collection of bases has generally been offensive in nature, making it all too easy to launch interventionist wars of choice that have resulted in repeated disasters, costing millions of lives from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 35 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- New U.S. bases near rivals may create the very threats they aim to counter. (similarity 0.89)
- Hosting US bases makes host countries targets for attack (similarity 0.88)
- Containment rationale for Japanese bases substitutes China for the USSR with weak fit (similarity 0.87)
- US bases near China and Russia borders raise confrontation risk (similarity 0.87)
- Without a superpower rival, overseas bases enable offensive wars of choice (similarity 0.85)
- Bases near rival borders provoke arms races and discourage diplomacy (similarity 0.85)
- Offshore bases lower the threshold for launching interventionist wars (similarity 0.84)
- Defensive bases can appear threatening to the nations they encircle (similarity 0.84)
- US overseas bases make war more likely by easing military action (similarity 0.83)
- Easier access to bases makes US military intervention more likely (similarity 0.82)
- The overseas base network is what enables sustained distant warfare (similarity 0.82)
- Overseas bases make war more likely by lowering its cost (similarity 0.81)
- Bases surrounding a rival power provoke dangerous escalation (similarity 0.81)
- Judgments about overseas base security value rest on prior beliefs, not evidence (similarity 0.81)
- The Cuban Missile Crisis shows bases provoke the encircled power (similarity 0.81)
Broader Connections
- Overseas bases perpetuate themselves by inventing new missions as old ones expire
#expands(0.75) - Overseas bases enable interventionist wars rather than defensive protection
#corroborates(0.75) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 35 - Overseas bases ease the waging of foreign wars and make war likelier
#corroborates(0.70) - US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination
#expands(0.55) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 104 - Truman authorized covert operations to induce trouble in Russia.
#corroborates(0.50) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 981 - Wars in Korea and Vietnam drove repeated expansions of the overseas base network
#complicates(0.45) — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 97