The military downsized overseas bases but kept its same global footprint.

Evidence

As former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy Andrew Hoehn told me, with the end of the Cold War, the military reduced its overseas presence but failed to make any significant change in the nature of its forces abroad. There was “a lot of hedging at that moment,” he said. “We shrank in place. But we really didn’t reposition.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 131

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The distinction between shrinking and repositioning captures a systemic inertia worth sitting with.