Overseas bases spawn self-perpetuating communities dependent on their continued operation
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
Category: Causal Relationships
- XREF: Connects to the Milgrom/Shapiro ‘social capital’ theme of how institutions create self-sustaining dependency networks.
Related
- Overseas bases create entrenched constituencies dependent on their continuation (similarity 0.95)
- Overseas bases generate dependent communities that resist closure (similarity 0.92)
- Americans treat overseas military bases as an unquestioned normal good (similarity 0.84)
- Base closures abroad tend to be offset by new base construction elsewhere (similarity 0.83)
- Self-contained family base communities normalized and legitimized permanent overseas occupation (similarity 0.83)
- Decolonization threatened the end of Western overseas military bases (similarity 0.83)
- Judgments about overseas base security value rest on prior beliefs, not evidence (similarity 0.83)
- Base infrastructure that outlives its purpose actively creates insecurity (similarity 0.83)
- Postwar decolonization threatened to strip the U.S. of overseas bases (similarity 0.82)
- Established overseas bases develop new missions to justify their continued enlargement (similarity 0.82)
- US overseas bases make war more likely by easing military action (similarity 0.82)
- The overseas base network is what enables sustained distant warfare (similarity 0.82)
- US military can project power farther than any rival without overseas bases (similarity 0.82)
- Overseas bases reveal America’s permanent war footing and militarized economy (similarity 0.81)
- Offshore bases lower the threshold for launching interventionist wars (similarity 0.81)