Overview of U.S. Imperialism: U.S. Military and Modern Colonialism #1
I have just begun a series of articles titled "U.S. Military and Modern Colonialism," which aims to give U.S. imperialism and the actual conditions of an occupied country.
Introduction
Knowing about the U.S.'s basing posture, which has the most significant military strength in the world, is essential to learning how the U.S. affects the world. First, I will show the whole picture of U.S. overseas bases in this series.
I will use data from the Base Structure Report(BSR) 2023 and the Number of Military and Department of Defense (DoD) Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel Dec. 2023.
The BSR2023 was published by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment and represents a snapshot of the DoD real property inventory (RPI) as of September 30, 2022. It is the latest version at present.
The Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel Dec.2023 represents the number of active duty, National Guard, National Reserve, and DoD APF civilian personnel as of December 2023.
Number of Sites
Map 1 shows the number of overseas sites of the U.S. Department of Defense.
I painted the countries or territories where the 1-10 U.S. DoD's sites are located light pink, 11-50 pink, and over 50 red.
According to BSR2023 definitions, a Site is "A specific geographic location that has individual land parcels or facilities assigned to it. Physical (geographic) location that is, or was owned by, leased to, or otherwise under the jurisdiction of a DoD Component on behalf of the United States. A site may be contiguous to another site but cannot geographically overlap or be within another site. A site may exist in one of three forms: land only – where no facilities are present; facility or facilities only – where the underlying land is neither owned nor controlled by the government, and land with facilities – where both are present."
One or more sites may make up one installation, which means a military base, camp, post, station, yard, center, homeport facility for any ship, or other activity under the Department of Defense's jurisdiction, including leased space, that is controlled by or primarily supports DoD activities.
Also, BSR2023's Display Criteria explains, " a DoD site located in the United States must be larger than 10 acres AND have a Plant Replacement Value (PRV) greater than $10 million. Sites located in a foreign country must be larger than 10 acres OR have a PRV greater than $10 million. " Sites that do not meet these criteria are aggregated into another list. Plant Replacement Value means the total value of all facilities.
Map 2 displays the number of the U.S. DoD's overseas sites, including sites that do not meet the abovementioned criteria.
I painted the countries or territories where the 1-10 U.S. DoD's sites are located light pink, 11-49 pink, 50-100 red, and over 100 yellow.
Graph 1 illustrates the countries and territories where most U.S. DoD sites that meet the criteria are located.
Number of U.S. Personnel
Map 3 shows the number of U.S. active-duty, National Guard, National Reserve, and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) civilian personnel stationed overseas.
I painted the countries or territories where the 1-99 U.S. personnel station light pink, 100-499 light blue, 500-999 light green, 1000-4999 blue, 5000-9999 pink, 10000-49999 red, and over 50000 yellow.
I referred to the table Number of Military and DoD Appropriated Fund (APF) Civilian Personnel Dec.2023, published by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).
It only represents the unclassified data on personnel assigned for duty.
Also, the table includes personnel assigned to the State Department and Embassies overseas. It does not include all personnel on temporary duty, in support of contingency operations, or active combat deployments, such as Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.
According to Defense Primer: DOD Appropriated Fund Civilians, published by the Congressional Research Service, "DOD civilians provide direct and indirect support to the warfighter across numerous disciplines, such as engineering, supply management, information technology, cybersecurity, intelligence, financial management, and law. For example, some civilians directly support military operations by training, advising, and assisting military personnel from other nations to build defense capacity in ground logistics, cybersecurity, and combat readiness. Other civilians help procure, build, test, or maintain major weapons systems used by military personnel in operations."
Graph 2 shows the countries and territories where most U.S. personnel are stationed worldwide in order.
Plant Replacement Value
Plant Replacement Value (PRV) indicates the total value of all facilities (buildings, structures, and linear structures). It represents the calculated cost to replace the current physical plant using today's construction costs (labor and materials) and standards (methodologies and codes).
The BSR2018 displays the standard DoD formula calculating PRV.
PRV = Facility Quantity × Construction Cost Factor × Area Cost Factor × Historical Records Adjustment × Planning and Design Factor × Supervision Inspection and Overhead Factor × Contingency Factor
Graph 3 displays the PRV of DoD facilities in the countries and territories where most U.S. sites that meet the criteria are located, in units of $ Million.
Square Footage of Buildings
Graph 4 illustrates the square footage of buildings the U.S. DoD uses in the countries and territories where most U.S. sites that meet the criteria are located, in units of thousand square footage.
Total Acres
Graph 5 shows the total number of acres in the countries and territories where most U.S. sites that meet the criteria are located. Total Acres include government-owned land, public land withdrawn for military use, licensed and permitted land, and acreage of foreign land used by DoD.
Conclusion
Germany has the most U.S. sites, but Japan has the most U.S. service members, Plant Replacement Value of DoD facilities, Square Footage of DoD Buildings, and Total Acres.
In brief, the country that hosts the most U.S. military is Japan.
Next, I will demonstrate an overview of the U.S. military in Japan.