U.S. military bases have become a critical part of Washington's evolving strategy to maintain U.S. global dominance and demonstrate its power in an increasingly competitive and increasingly multipolar world.

You might think that the U.S. military is shrinking rather than expanding its inconspicuous but vast collection of military bases. Today there are more than 950 known U.S. military bases and I will tell you what they do in 80 countries.


Their primary mission is security.

According to the U.S. intelligence report, it is stated that the main threats to U.S. security are - Growing challenges in Russia and Eurasia, in particular, it is stated that Russia is trying to change the existing international political and economic order, the processes taking place in the region called the "Arc of Instability" stretching from the Middle East to Southeast Asia (Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan); the problems of Asia (the negative consequences of the rise of Asian giants China and India; and the nuclear ambitions of North Korea); the problems of the Balkans, Latin America, and Africa;


Understanding this is key to understanding why the US needs military bases.


By the way the Pentagon is one of the largest landowners on earth, its military bases occupy 12,726,668 yds
That's about the size of Greece, or half the size of Great Britain.

And we're off to Eastern Europe. The collapse of the Soviet Union didn't go smoothly, and after countries gained independence, Moscow occasionally tries to take back sovereignty. So to contain the growing threat from Moscow, the U.S. maintains military bases in Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. Department of Defense deployed more than 20,000 additional troops to Europe. This increased the number of U.S. troops here from 80,000 to 100,000.




Our next point is the Middle East
Also One of the "hottest" regions of the planet, where American military bases are located.
They are located in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Oman.
The purpose was to ensure the security of oil transit, as well as to contain Iran and Iraq as aggressive states.


A growing and very real threat is the influence of China and its political course against U.S. dominance in the world.
To defend against this threat, the U.S. h st Asia in Japan and South Korea. Interestingly, each of these countries has bases for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces - Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. In addition, U.S. warships regularly ply the western Pacific Ocean.
About 60,000 U.S. troops and civilians are stationed in Japan; another 30,000 in South Korea.
In addition to China, these bases control the DPRK with its nuclear ambitions, as well as the eastern part of Russia.


In addition, to contain China, the U.S. actively militarizes Australia. According to a report on September 5, 2021 was created a trilateral alliance formed by Australia, Britain and the United States. Within the framework of the alliance, Australia's military potential is being actively built up, and its territory is planned to be used as a huge forward base"


Significantly smaller numbers of military personnel are in Africa, where the US also has its own political interests -
In Niger and Somalia there are U.S. military bases, which Washington uses for strikes by MQ-9 Reaper UAVs against terrorist groups in West and North Africa.


Also you have to take into account that each US aircraft carrier is in fact a real military base, the US has 11 aircraft carriers that move freely around the world, but according to the latest information, they were at the points you see on the screen. It's easy to see that they are close to the military bases and they also ensure the military dominance of the usa in the world.

These are the U.S.'s most important places of power, and they form key areas of U.S. dominance policy. But also the White House has a huge number of other, smaller military bases, each with a specific purpose.
Take a look at this globe to understand the scale of the US military network.
As you can see it's a lot. If you know a little bit about politics, write in the comments your opinion about all these bases, and what course you think the U.S. should take - to increase or decrease their number.