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Military Empires: A visual guide to foreign bases - part of the No Bases project at WorldBeyondWar.org
Military Empires: A visual guide to foreign bases. Part of the No Bases Project at WorldBeyondWar.org.

Military Empires: A Visual Guide to Foreign Bases

Many countries operate foreign military bases; the U.S. by far operates the most, with over 900 military bases around the world. But at least 17 other nations operate foreign military bases, each of which increases the risk of war.  Some of these physical installations are on land occupied as spoils of war. Most are maintained through collaborations with governments, many of them brutal and oppressive governments benefiting from the bases’ presence. In many cases, human beings were displaced to make room for these military installations, often depriving people of farmland, adding huge amounts of pollution to local water systems and the air, and existing as an unwelcome presence.

Please use the links on this page to explore the current state of military base expansion and escalation on country-specific map pages. To explore each country’s bases,  click on map markers or use the dashboard to make selections. The main page for World BEYOND War’s Close Bases campaign is here.

USA’s Military Empire: 917 Foreign Bases in 98 Countries

Countries With Military Bases In 10 Or More Countries (Click for Detail)

UK: 117 Bases in 38 Countries
India: 22 Bases in 12 Countries
Turkiye: 128 Bases in 10 Countries
Russia: 58 Bases in 10 Countries
France: 15 Bases in 10 Countries

Other Countries With Military Bases

Singapore: 10 Bases in 6 Countries
China: 6 Bases in 6 Countries
UAE: 13 Bases in 5 Countries
Canada: 4 Bases in 4 Countries
Iran: 22 Bases in 3 Countries
Netherlands: 3 Bases in 2 Countries
Saudi Arabia: 2 Bases in 2 Countries
Australia: 2 Bases in 2 Countries
Italy: 2 Bases in 2 Countries
Bangladesh: 1 Base in 1 Country
Pakistan: 1 Base in 1 Country
Japan: 1 Base in 1 Country

Closed Foreign Military Bases

Closed Bases: 1803 Former Bases

About This Project

Why We Built This Database
This visual database was researched and developed by World BEYOND War to help journalists, activists, researchers and individual readers understand the immense problem of excessive preparation for war, which inevitably leads to international bullying, meddling, threats, escalation and mass atrocity. By illustrating the extent of global base expansion, and highlighting the asymmetry of USA’s number of bases, we hope to call attention to the wider problem. Thanks to davidvine.net for a variety of information included herein.

How You Can Help

Please help spread the word that information about foreign military bases is available to the public.

This database is a work in progress, using information gathered from various public data sources. If you see errors or omissions, please let us know.

World BEYOND War is seeking funding to continue the research, data collection and software development for this project and other related map/database projects highlighting the problems of global militarization. We hope to improve this app in the following ways:

Increased Scope of Information About Each Base

Much information is available about the effect of foreign military bases on local communities and populations. We hope to track more data points covering more aspects of the severe problems caused by these military outposts.

Software Enhancement

World BEYOND War hopes to continue to produce original, high-quality, information-rich presentations for the use of the global antiwar movement. This requires investment in coding and UX skills. We are seeking funding to improve this app, customize it for different types of screens, and allow us to build more information-rich presentations of various kinds.

Please become a World BEYOND War donor to support this and other projects. If you would like to sponsor or become a contributor to our Close Military Bases activities, please contact us.

Learn more about bases and our campaign to close them here.

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