U.S. military presence in Africa now exceeds that in Latin America and the Caribbean

Evidence

In total, since late 2001, the military has spent around $30 billion or more on a growing military infrastructure as well as other military aid and programs in Africa. This infrastructure includes nineteen lily pads in around seventeen countries; access to an additional eight or more “cooperative security locations” without any permanent U.S. presence; jet and naval fuel storage at twenty-eight or more locations in at least twenty countries; the construction or upgrading of scores of host country military facilities; and the expansion of several large bases in Europe to support operations in Africa. Since 2001, the military’s presence on the continent has grown from a few hundred to what is now, on any day, likely between seven thousand and eleven thousand U.S. troops. While the military’s power in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East significantly exceeds that in Africa, the Pentagon’s presence on the continent now tops that in Latin America and the Caribbean—long declared by U.S. leaders to be “America’s backyard.” The military is now operating in at least forty-nine of the fifty-four African countries. It may be operating in every single one. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1000

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘lily pad’ network concept connects directly to the reader’s interest in base infrastructure typologies and echoes earlier chapters on small-footprint basing strategies.