No basis for these military bases: a new report

JULY 14, 2025

A new report by World Beyond War finds that military bases used by foreign militaries are growing in number. But so are public protests against those bases. Of 1,247 foreign military bases in the world, 877 of them, by the latest count, are US bases outside of the United States. Eighteen other nations, combined, have 370 bases outside their borders.

The report, No basis for these bases: The damage foreign military bases do in 2025, finds that “In no case anywhere on Earth is a foreign military base the result of a popular demand by the population of either the nation occupying the base or the nation hosting it, much less both. On the contrary, foreign military bases are often created, expanded, and maintained despite strong popular opinion against them within a host country or a portion of it, and widespread ignorance in the occupying nation.”

Of the UK, the report says: “The only other nation on Earth with even a tenth as many foreign military bases as the United States is the United States’ very closest military, NATO, weapons-trading, and nuclear-weapons-sharing ally, the United Kingdom. The UK’s bases are spread around the globe in 38 countries, remnants of an empire long past its glory days. Some of the bases are joint US-UK operations, such as those on Diego Garcia, Ascension, and on other islands. Of the UK’s 117 foreign bases, 17 are on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus (and are currently being used to assist in the Israeli genocide in Gaza — illustrating one of the many concerning issues with foreign bases: they may facilitate actions the occupying nation’s own population might oppose).”

Foreign military bases serve not only to facilitate wars and arms races, or to assert foreign control over a host country’s own military, but also to strengthen the grip of an oppressive host government on its own people. They make it easier to launch missiles into nearby nations. They increase the danger of terrorist attacks.

They violate the principle of self-governance. Despite opposition from the people, Papua New Guinea’s government agreed in 2023 to allow in US bases, which is arguably unconstitutional. The US troops stationed there will not be subject to the country’s laws. Norway opposed the recent expansion of US bases, not only because militarism leads to war, but because US troops would be immune from Norwegian laws.

Another concern is that nations with foreign bases are not even permitted to know what sort of provocation or danger those bases may contain. The Australian government has publicly supported the right of the US government not to tell the Australian public whether or not there have been or will be nuclear weapons in Australia.

Military bases also cause irreparable environmental damage. US bases in particular are a major source of “forever chemicals” pollution, including in Germany and in Okinawa. When a base is returned to the host country, there are no requirements for the United States to clean up the damage it has caused, or even disclose the presence of certain toxins. Labour Hub has previously reported on the US’s refusal to clean up after its nuclear testing in the South Seas and compensate the people affected.

“Bases tend to cause other types of harm in the areas where they are located,” the report finds. “They create zones of prostitution, drunkenness, and reckless, abusive, and criminal behaviour, including sexual assault and rape.” Add to this the widespread contempt shown towards local people and even the outright and permanent theft of their land, as seen in the case of the Chagos Islands historically.

People have built popular movements to prevent planned bases and to close existing ones at many locations around the world, and increasingly they are in touch with each other. Earlier this year, individuals and organizations around the world took coordinated action to call for the closure of all military bases as part of the Global Day of Action to Close Bases. In over 60 locations people protested the foreign bases of various countries, including the United States, the UK, and Russia.

In some places, movements against bases have gained official support. The Governor of Okinawa has repeatedly visited the United States to insist that military bases be closed. Almost 20 years ago, the Government of Ecuador evicted the US military and banned foreign bases. More recently, the Ecuadorian government has violated its Constitution to allow foreign bases in the Galapagos Islands and proposed to do the same on the mainland, despite opposition.

Furthermore, bases have been prevented or closed. In 2024, after years of struggle, the Save Sinjajevina campaign met with the Prime Minister of Montenegro and gained his promise that there would be no military training ground built at Sinjajevina in Montenegro.

The campaign against military bases takes on increased urgency with new plans to store US nuclear weapons on UK soil. The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has already organised a big campaign around RAF Lakenheath, and are encouraging supporters to email their MP about the stationing of US nuclear weapons at the base, without any public consultation or parliamentary debate.