US MILITARY BASE IN AFRICA
The act of establishing foreign military base purportedly to help combat threat by nonstate actors is not an outlandish strategy. It has always been a strategy used by foreign powers to combat (what is considered to be) threat to international security. Usually, it is often regarded as a collaborative effort by foreign powers and a host country to combat illegal international interference in the territory of the host country and to fight against terrorist organization that is or has the potential of threatening the host state, directly or indirectly, through humanitarian crisis. It can, sometimes, be deployed in a region whose insecurity is considered as having the potential of causing international instability—usually with the assent of the countries in such region.
Foreign basing skyrocketed in the Cold War era between the United States and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR), and has obviously continued till date. However, the rationale behind foreign military bases is often to enhance foreign strategic influence in the host country, namely, to enable intelligence gathering about a potential enemy, and for easy deployment of military actions to deter any offensive from an enemy. It is, practically, a kind of proxy tool deployed by world powers. Although the allegations that erupted last month regarding a proposed US military base in Nigeria had been refuted by the federal government, it is not certain that the United States would not open another military base in another part of the continent, anytime soon. The question is, is it good for the continent of Africa to abhor foreign military troops?
The establishment of the US foreign military bases took a new turn in the early 19th century when the country shifted from her isolationist policy to pragmatism/interventionism. The United States withdrawal from the isolationist policy brought her out of the confine of addressing national security issues nationally. President Theodore Roosevelt, as against
General George Washington, harped on the need for the United States’ intervention in global politics in order to secure its territories and territorial gains. Subsequent presidents pushed forward to not only protect the United States’ territories, but also, to make her a super power helping to adjudicate global issues. This translated into other policies, the Monroe Doctrine, the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan which bred the Bretton Woods institutions. The first two doctrines, especially, emphasize the need for diplomatic military actions by the United States in the protection of her national and territorial security abroad. The United States began establishing more, and more military bases abroad, having realized its relevance after the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century. Many of the United States military base surfaced in allied countries during the Cold War asshecouldnotenduretheexpansionistinfluence of the Soviet Union into newly independent states. Thus, foreign military base would be useful in counteracting her major contender, the Soviet Union, from expanding its communist ideology into the United States capitalist allied states. By the end of the Cold War in 1990/91, the United States had established military bases in up to about 40 countries. After the USSR’s disintegration which culminated in its withdrawing of foreign military troops in its former sphere of influence, the United States also reduced her foreign troops significantly. However, due to the September 11 Attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the US reignited her strategic military base in foreign countries in order to effectively carry out her “global war on terror.” By 2021, US foreign military base has spread across over 80 countries. Africa has then become a place of call for the United States to turn towards as the continent is prone to terrorist organizations.
Abdulkabir Muhammed, Department of History and International Studies, Lagos State University