US Bases worldwide

Countries hosting American Bases

Image by PatriotMyke [CC BY-SA 4.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons

US military spending exceeds the total of the next ten largest countries combined. Although the US government acknowledges 682 military bases in 63 countries, that number may be over 1,000 (if all military installations are included), in 156 countries. Total military personnel is estimated at over 1.4 million.

Extract from World Beyond War. (7 March 2024)

The U.S. military maintains at least 75% of the military bases in the world that are on foreign soil. The United States has three times as many bases abroad (approximately 900) as U.S. embassies, consulates, and missions. While there are approximately half as many installations as at the Cold War’s end, U.S. bases have spread geographically — to twice as many countries and colonies (from 40 to 80), with large concentrations of facilities in the Middle East, East Asia, parts of Europe, and Africa. Bases, like military spending, have an established record of making wars more, not less, likely. U.S. installations are found in at least 38 non-democratic countries and colonies.

From Panama to Guam to Puerto Rico to Okinawa to dozens of other locations across the world, the U.S. military has taken valuable land from local populations, often pushing out indigenous people in the process, without their consent and without reparations. For example, between 1967 and 1973, the entire population of the Chagos Islands – about 1500 people, was forcibly removed from the island of Diego Garcia by the UK so that it could be leased to the U.S. for an airbase. The Chagossian people were taken off their island by force and transported in conditions compared to those of slave ships. They were not allowed to take anything with them and their animals were killed before their eyes. The Chagossians have petitioned the British government many times for return of their home, and their situation has been addressed by the UN. Despite an overwhelming vote of the UN General Assembly, and an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in the Hague that the island should be returned to the Chagossians, the UK has refused and the US continues operations from Diego Garcia today.

Bases today typically deny rights to host countries, including the right to know how land and water are being poisoned, and including the right to hold U.S. military personnel to the rule of law. Bases are miniature apartheid states where rights and abilities are very different for the foreign forces and the local people hired for menial labor.

There are many more problems with foreign bases.

Overseas bases owned or used by the US military

AFGHANISTAN: Bagram AB, Kandahar Airfield, Mazar-e-Sharif, Gardez, Kabul, Herat, Shindand, Sharab, Jalalabad

ANTARCTICA: McMurdo Station

ARGENTINA: Trelew, Golfo Nuevo, Chaco

ARUBA: Aruba

ASCENSION ISLAND: Ascension Island

AUSTRALIA: Exmouth, Northwest Cape, Pine Gap, Tindal AB

BAHAMAS: Andros Island

BAHRAIN: Manama, Al Jufayr, Isa Air Base

BELGIUM: Brussels, Chievres, Florennes, Kleine-Brogel, Mons

BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY: Diego Garcia

CANADA: Argentia Newfoundland

CUBA: Guantanamo Bay

CYPRUS. Dhekelia and Akrotiri

DJIBOUTI: Camp Lemonnier

GERMANY: Amberg, Ansbach, Bamberg, Bann, Baumholder, Boeblingen, Buechel, Darmstadt, Dexheim, Einsiedlerhof, Garmisch, Geilenkirchen, Germersheim, Giessen, Grafenwohr, Heidelberg, Hof, Hohenfels, Illesheim, Kaiserlautern, Kornwestheim, Lampertheim, Landshut, Langen, Leimen, Mainz, Mannheim, Miesau, Pfeffelbach, Pirmasens, Ramstein, Rheindahlem, Schweinfurt, Schwetzingen, Seckenheim, Sembach, Spangdahlem, Stuttgart, Trier

GREECE: Larissa, Soudha Bay

GREENLAND: Thule AB

GUAM: Anderson AFB, Apra Harbor NS, Andy South

HONDURAS: Soto Cano/Palmerola

ICELAND: Grindavik

IRAQ: Green Zone, Camp Taji

ISRAEL: Dimona Radar Facility

ITALY: Catania, Aviano, Tirrenia, Vicenza, Naples, Coltano, Pordenone, Gaeta, Brescia, Livorno, Maniago, Sigonella Sicily, Pisa, Roveredo, San Vito Normanni, Cordenone, Niscemi Sicily

JAPAN: Tokyo, Sasebo, Akizuki, Okinawa, Yokosuka, Tengan, Zukeran, Camp Fuji, Sagamihara, Chitose, Sasebo, Misawa, Gotemba, Hachinohe, Kure, Ikego, Fukuoka, Iwo Jima, Gushikawa, Kami Seya, Higashi-Hiroshima, Kisarazu, Yokohama, Iwakuni, Koza, Waco City, Atsugi, Yokosuka, Owada, Sagamihara, Zama, Tana, Tokorosana, Totsuka, Fussa

JOHNSTON ATOLL: Uninhabited US island (now unused?)

KENYA: Mombasa

SOUTH KOREA: Chechon, Chinhae, Inchon, Kimhae, Kunsan, Kwangju, Masan, Munsan, Osan, Paju, Pochon, Pohang, Pusan, Pyeongtaek, Seoul, Songnam, Suwon, Taegu, Taejon, Taepeak, Tong Du Chon, Uijong Bu, Waegwan, Wonju, Yechon, Yongchon, Yongju, Yongpyong, Yongsan

KOSOVO: Camp Bondsteel

KUWAIT: Ali Al Salem, Buehring, Ahmed Al Jaber, Al Mubarak AB, Camp Patriot, Camp Arifjan, Camp Virginia, Shuaiba Naval Base, Udairi Training Range

MARSHALL ISLANDS: Kwajalein Atoll

NETHERLANDS: Brunssum, Schinnen

NORTHERN MARIANA ISLANDS: Tinian, Saipan, Farallon de Medinilla

NORWAY: Norway

OMAN: Sur Masirah, Salalah, Seeb, Thumrait, Al Mussanah AB

PORTUGAL: Lajesfield

PUERTO RICO: Fort Buchanan, Caguas, Camp Santiago

QATAR: Al Udeid, As Sayliyah

ROMANIA: Mihail Kogalniceanu AB, Deveselu, Babadag Training Base

SINGAPORE: Paya Lebar AB

SPAIN: Morón AB, Naval Station Rota

TURKEY: Ankara, Batman, Izmir, Incirlik AB, Yumurzalik