Offers an explanation through developing a theory of great-power persistence Concludes the vast network of overseas U.S. military bases and troops Represents an ideal test case for these mechanisms Why is it so difficult for a great power or a hegemon to retrench? More specifically, why are U.S. military bases and troops still largely where they have been for generations? This book offers an explanation. It argues that the murkiness of the anarchic international system combines with specific psychological inclinations of individuals to produce “better-safe-than-sorry” policies. Members of the U.S. foreign-policy community overwhelmingly prefer the status quo over any uncertain alternative, and they want their country to continue to maximize its influence and project its military force abroad in order to steady wobbling, though inherently hypothetical, geopolitical “dominoes.” The theory is put to the empirical test through an elaborate analysis of U.S. overseas troop deployments, withdrawal attempts, and retrenchment resistance from 2017 through 2021. Even if U.S. voters elected a retrenchment advocate – Donald Trump – as president, and despite that the United States is a gradually declining power, the period saw very little change in U.S. overseas troop deployment.
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CITATION STYLE
Jakobsen, J. (2022). The Geopolitics of U.S. Overseas Troops and Withdrawal. The Geopolitics of U.S. Overseas Troops and Withdrawal. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94488-9