Overseas bases create entrenched constituencies dependent on their continuation

Evidence

In even more complicated ways than major weapons systems, overseas military bases are the true incarnation of President Eisenhower’s worst nightmares about the military-industrial complex. The establishment of overseas bases has created entire social worlds, with thousands of people and corporations that have become economically, socially, bureaucratically, psychologically, and, as Eisenhower said, even spiritually dependent on the continued operation of those worlds—just like fire departments but on a much larger scale. Even worse, these bases tend to entrench themselves in local communities and host nations, creating yet more dependence around the world. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1058

Categorization

• XREF: This entrenchment mechanism parallels how social capital investments create constituencies that resist closure, echoing the mobility-loss passage in the reader’s social capital readings. — connects to: Alliance commitments generate durable domestic constituencies that resist their abandonment. — Robert B. McCalla, NATO’s persistence after the cold war, 142; Overseas basing consensus survives unquestioned across both U.S. parties even without a superpower rival — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 24; Base closures attract rare cross-partisan political support — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1029