The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against US Military Posts

This book examines U.S. military bases across the globe including those in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. It documents the massive political, economic, and environmental impacts that these outposts have and studies the movements and campaigns against them. U.S. military bases form a huge global system but are poorly understood by those not directly involved in their operation. The Pentagon is currently relocating many bases to fit with the strategies of preemption and resource control, which has intensified existing conflicts between the military and local people. The authors of this volume show how these seemingly local disputes are crucial to the success and failure of the American imperial project, and attempt to bring together the geographically scattered opposition movements to form a coherent campaign against the harmful effects of bases. A key title for students of politics and anthropology, this collection will also open the eyes of US citizens to the damage the American empire causes in allied countries as well as in its war zones.

Catherine A. Lutz is Professor at the Watson Institute for International Studies and Anthropology at Brown University.