As Washington begins its review of the United States' military presence in Europe – confirmed this week by Under Secretary of War, Elbridge Colby – few observers welcome the prospect more than David Vine, a long-time critic of the sprawling network of American overseas bases.
Vine, an American anthropologist and the author of Base Nation and The United States of War, has spent decades documenting what he calls the US "empire" of military bases. A fierce critic of US President Donald Trump and of US foreign policy in general, Vine nonetheless finds himself in agreement with the president: it is high time, he argues, for Europe to stand on its own two feet. RFI: The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, announced last June that Washington would review the US military presence in Europe. This process has now started, as confirmed by Elbridge Colby earlier this week. First of all, what is the main function of this military presence in Europe? David Vine: The US presence in Europe has been characterised as defensive in nature. The record shows that US bases on the continent since the end of the Cold War have been primarily a platform for war-making in the Middle East. The war in Iran illustrates this with bases in Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Romania, the UK and beyond supporting US war efforts. RFI: How big is the US military presence in Europe today? DV: Massive. Since the Cold War's end, the US military has maintained a major presence around the continent. It’s one that I think should change. Despite disagreeing with Donald Trump on nearly everything, his rethinking of the US military presence in Europe is actually quite a good thing. There are people around Europe who are rethinking the presence of the US military on their soil, given the erratic behavior of Donald Trump, given his starting a number of illegal wars, kidnapping foreign leaders... And it's a presence that should have been rethought years ago. US reviews troop presence in Europe as Washington pushes NATO burden sharing RFI: Where in Europe are most US troops stationed? DV: There remain a large number of US military bases in particular in Germany, Italy and the UK, but there are now US military bases in almost every country in Europe – barring France. France had US military bases after World War II, but under Charles de Gaulle, the French kicked the US and NATO out in the 1960s. There are [119] US bases in Germany, [44 in] Italy and [25 in] the UK – and tens of thousands of US troops.
