Taps for America’s Empire of Bases? Reducing the U.S. Global Bootprint
The Biden administration is conducting a “Global Posture Review” meant to ensure that the worldwide presence of U.S. military forces is “appropriately aligned with our foreign policy and national security priorities.” This review offers an opportunity to change the way the United States deploys its forces, currently scattered on 800-some overseas bases. Momentum is growing to close hundreds of those bases and bring troops home, as proposed by experts across party lines in a new open letter. Join a group of those experts on Wednesday, March 10 from 1-2 pm EST to discuss why the Biden administration should sunset America’s base empire and how it will strengthen U.S. national security in the process. The panel will include David Vine, professor of political anthropology at American University and board member of the Costs of War Project; Christine Ahn, Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ; and John Glaser, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. Quincy Institute President Andrew Bacevich will moderate.
Topics
Panelists
Christine Ahn
Christine Ahn is the Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War. In 2015, she led 30 international women peacemakers across the DMZ from North to South Korea where they walked with 10,000 Korean women and held women’s peace symposia in Pyongyang and Seoul. Ahn coordinates the transnational feminist campaign, Korea Peace Now! Women Mobilizing to End the War. Christine has organized peace and humanitarian aid delegations to North and South Korea, and has addressed Congress, United Nations, Canadian Parliament, and the Republic of Korea National Commission on Human Rights. She is the recipient of the 2020 U.S. Peace Prize.
David Vine
David Vine is Professor of political anthropology at American University in Washington, DC. David has recently published a new book, The United States of War: A Global History of America’s Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State (2020). The United States of War is the third in a trilogy of books about war and peace. The other books in the trilogy are Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (2009) and Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World (2015).David is a board member of the Costs of War Project and a co-founder of the Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition (OBRACC).
John Glaser
John Glaser is director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. His research interests include grand strategy, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, the rise of China, and the role of status and prestige motivations in international politics. He is host of the Power Problems podcast and the co‐author, with Christopher A. Preble and A. Trevor Thrall, of Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse (and How We Can Recover) (Cato Institute, 2019). He also published a Cato policy analysis titled: "Withdrawing from Overseas Bases: Why a Forward-Deployed Military Posture is Unnecessary, Outdated, and Dangerous."
Andrew Bacevich
Andrew J. Bacevich is the President of the Quincy Institute. He graduated from West Point and Princeton and served in the army for 23 years, prior to an academic and writing career. Among his dozen books are: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism; Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War; America’s War for the Greater Middle East; and The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory. He is professor emeritus of international relations and history at Boston University.