Since the end of World War II, the US military has committed itself to an aggressive new tact, serving as the policeman and regulator of global capitalism. This strategy, maintained as stringently by Democratic administrations as it is by Republican ones, has resulted in the creation of hundreds of US military bases abroad.

In his authoritative Base Nation, anthropologist David Vine shows how extensive this network of overseas installations really is, with some 800 bases housing an estimated half million Americans abroad. “Lily pad” bases, small sites where aircraft can launch and which often operate in secret, have especially proliferated since the War on Terror began.

In 2009, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa justified his refusal to renew a US military lease in his country with a quip, saying, “If there’s no problem having soldiers on a country’s soil, surely they’ll let us have an Ecuadorian base in the United States.” Correa’s point was clear: the world is less safe with these bases in it. They all must be opposed.