US overseas base footprint is shrinking after budget cuts

Evidence

Today, there are some encouraging signs that the base nation is shrinking, thanks in part to Pentagon-wide budget cuts. While it remains unclear whether the military will fully withdraw its bases and troops from Afghanistan and Iraq, the withdrawal of most U.S. forces has been a positive development, albeit amid continuing devastation and violence in both countries. The closure of large numbers of Cold War–era bases and the removal of tens of thousands of troops from Europe and, to a lesser extent, East Asia since the George W. Bush administration initiated its Global Posture Review have continued a much-needed drawdown begun after the dissolution of the Soviet Union but halted prematurely in the mid-1990s. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 1066