U.S. base strategy has returned to a nineteenth-century coaling-station model.

Evidence

The developments in the Philippines have been widely replicated with American lily pads flowering around the globe. The result appears to be a case of “back to the future,” with the creation of what military analyst Robert Work likens to a “global coaling-station network” last seen in the nineteenth century. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 157