The United States maintains the largest network of foreign military bases in human history: roughly 750 installations in about 80 countries and territories, more than every other nation combined. Most of that network was built after the Second World War, as Washington took the place of the old European empires and needed a permanent military presence to secure trade routes, oil supplies, and governments friendly to US capital. Bases became the hardware of empire.

They are launch points for invasions, coups, and bombing campaigns, listening posts for surveillance, and a standing threat to any people who try to nationalize their resources or choose a path outside Washington’s orbit. Their cost falls hardest on the people who live beside them. To build the base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, Britain expelled the entire Chagossian population in the 1960s and 1970s. In Okinawa, generations of residents have fought land seizures, military crimes, and contamination of their soil and water. 

In Puerto Rico, the people of Vieques lived for decades with Navy bombing practice on their island until mass civil disobedience forced the Navy out in 2003. Guantánamo Bay, held against the will of the Cuban government since 1903, became a symbol of indefinite detention and torture. From Guam and Hawaiʻi to the Marshall Islands, Indigenous lands have been taken for runways, ranges, and weapons testing. Across Africa, the expansion of AFRICOM has brought drone bases and US troops to a continent that fought long wars for its independence. Yet wherever bases are built, resistance follows, from the Filipino movement that forced the closure of Subic Bay and Clark to the ongoing struggles of Okinawans, Chamorros, and Puerto Ricans. Closing the bases is a demand for sovereignty, peace, and self-determination, and for a world in which no nation garrisons the planet.

• 1 print shipped in a rigid mailer (made from recycled cardstock)
• printed on acid-free, premium matte-photo paper

• paper weight + thickness: 250/m² / 66lbs 

*frame not included*