Part 1 of 5 · freeIntroduction
A modern state claims sovereignty: exclusive authority over its territory and its population. Yet dozens of countries host foreign military bases, and some host several. A few powers use them to keep troops far from home. The United States alone has several hundred: about 750 sites in 80 countries and territories, according to a 2021 count.
Why would a state accept the army of a more powerful country inside its borders? To answer, we have to look past the map of independent states, toward the empires, old and new, in which they live. The story begins on the Algerian coast.
The rest is in the Sophia app.The remaining parts, the open-book quiz and the full glossary. Free to start; Premium unlocks everything.
- 2Mers el-Kébir: the colonial footprint
- 31940: fifty destroyers for bases
- 4Decolonization and Cold War rivalry
- 5Guantánamo and policing the world
Open-book quiz8 questions whose answers are in the text.
Glossary7 terms explained in a tap.
30 languagesThe same course, from French to Japanese.
