Without a superpower rival, overseas bases enable offensive wars of choice

Evidence

Most crucially, it’s not at all clear that U.S. bases overseas actually protect national security and global peace. During the Cold War, there was an argument to be made that to some extent U.S. bases in Europe and Asia played a legitimate defensive role. In the absence of a superpower enemy today, however, the argument that bases many thousands of miles from U.S. shores are necessary to defend the United States—or even its allies—is much harder to sustain. To the contrary, the global collection of bases has generally been offensive in nature, making it all too easy to launch interventionist wars of choice that have resulted in repeated disasters, costing millions of lives from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 35

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘offensive platforms enabling wars of choice’ argument echoes the strategic-logic literature on forward basing (e.g., the reassurance vs. provocation debate).
• DEEPTHINKING: The reframing of base networks from defensive to ‘offensive in nature’ fundamentally inverts the conventional strategic rationale; this is the book’s core claim.