eli5: Why does USA have military bases and soldiers in many foreign countries?
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If you are a global superpower you need to be able to project that power anywhere in the globe so you need airbases to fly from (more flexible and less risky than a carrier) soldiers to protect the base and potentially to be transported to a nearby combat zone.
This isn’t the only reason but a lot of countries like US Military presence. E.g. Poland knows the US is unlikely to attempt a take over of Poland no matter how assured a US victory would be, but Poland is pretty sure Russia would if they had even half a chance at success. So Poland is perfectly happy to host the US military in order to deter Russia. The US has strategic reasons for not wanting Russia to take over Europe, so they are happy to have a base there.
As much as people won’t/don’t want to admit it, most of them are because the local governments want(ed) those bases there. They provide a bit of security for the host nation, and/or some income both on leasing the land and money spent in the local economy by the US Service Members stationed there
They help the US by being a footprint in the area, so “we” are closer to the action if/when something happens
One big reason is that much of the world has allowed the United States to take on a large portion of their defense in exchange for allowing us to station troops there. For instance, of the 32 members of NATO, only about 5 reach the required threshold of spending 2% of their GDP on defense. Most of them have allowed the US to take the burden of defense in exchange for not having to spend that money. Similarly, Japan since WW2 is mostly demilitarized and relies on the US for defense.
This is largely a win-win situation for all sides, as it allows the US to project power across the globe and keep its allies in line with its strategic objectives, and the other countries don’t need to keep large standing armies and stockpiles. Plus, it’s largely contributed to the lack of conflict in the Western world and the lack of major wars in the last century. Without standing armies to wage wars, countries aren’t as bellicose. One reason the Korean War has never reignited is the commitment of the US to defend South Korea from any future incursions from the North. North Korea might be able to take South Korea one-on-one, but there’s no way it could bear the brunt of the full US military.
Other countries like Djibouti who aren’t in our network of mutual defense alliances, but are strategically located, can trade military basing rights for economic or political advantages, and regimes who allow America to station troops in their country give America a stake in keeping them in power, making coups or revolts less likely to succeed.
The short answer is ‘we won the war(s).’
The longer answer is that after the American occupations expired in Germany and Japan after WWII we were in the middle of the cold war and neither Japan nor western Germany were in any mood to become Soviet citizens. So, the US entered into something called a ‘status of forces agreement’ with the local countries to retain a US military presence. It is why we still have bases in England long after WWII.
The long term strategic goal is that the NATO countries plus Australia can respond to two major military engagements anywhere in the world. We are really tied up in this, more than is popularly known by the common individual. NATO militaries would work much less effectively without an American presence. The USA trains and supplies most NATO militaries in some way or another. They do exercises and deploy together. When you start respecting that NATO + Australia is really one large military it becomes obvious why you need American bases everywhere.
Treaties, mostly. The US’s real strength isn’t so much in their forces, but in their logistics. Having a large Army doesn’t do you any good if you can’t feed the troops once you send them somewhere. The US learned this important lesson during the Spanish-American War, and spent the 20th century spreading their logistics network all over the globe. In return for basing rights, the hosting nations get the benefit of the US Defense Umbrella, Favored Nation trading status, and upgrades to their infrastructure.
Others will likely mention that this goes along with the US’s power projection philosophy, and as part of the role of being a superpower.
However, for the countries the US has bases in, it’s also often less expensive to invite in the Americans in, replete with perks (geopolitical or otherwise) rather than funding a large military of their own.
“Infantry wins battles, logistics wins wars.”
-General John J. Pershing
Having strategic stocks of soldiers, equipment, and the food/fuel/ammo near any potential conflict zones allow the US military to react quickly and decisively at the onset of any battles. Quick and overwhelming reaction prevents the battle from escalating or being drawn out.
Ultimately it comes down to logistics, and it’s the same reason Amazon has tons of warehouses all over stocked with the same things. If someone in Wisonsin wants a new toy it’s much easier to just have a warehouse with that toy somewhere in Wisconsin than it is to ship it from, say California or New York.
Similarly, if the US needs to provide assistance somewhere in the world (whether that’s humanitarian or militaristic) it’s much easier to do so by calling upon the bases nearest to the location than it is to call all the troops to a base state-side and then fly or ship all of them, their equipment and supplies. It cuts response time down from days or weeks to hours.
Strategically, it also acts as a form of deterrence from anyone attacking the country hosting the US base. Anyone who attacked a US base would be opening up a whole other level of response than what the host country might be able to provide. Lastly, the US sells a lot of military vehicles and hardware – those bases often act as training and repair depots for that equipment which helps us keep track of it all and better train the purchasing country to use it effectively.
Usually because American allies ask for it, these are the vast majority but small ones.
A minority of basis (the big ones) are because America needs a logistics base or some other function in the area.
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