Outposts of Empire

The Defense Department has not yet selected all of the future locations for its new constellation of overseas facilities. But Pentagon officials are known to have visited a number of sites to assess their potential utility for this purpose, and both the Congressional Research Service and the Congressional Budget Office have speculated on a number of others.

Eastern Europe: According to the CBO the Pentagon is interested in the establishment of three or more forward operat­ing locations in Eastern Europe. In Poland it is looking into the use of several facilities once occupied by Soviet forces. In Romania much attention has been paid to the air base at Mihail Kogalniceanu and the Black Sea port of Constanta. Both were used to ferry troops and equipment to Iraq, and Secretary Rumsfeld visited these facilities in October to weigh their future utilization by American forces.

Central Asia and the Caucasus: The Pentagon currently maintains two forward operating locations in this region: at Khanabad in southern Uzbekistan and at Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. These bases are being used to support combat operations in Afghanistan, and the Pentagon has indicated that it plans to retain them for some time to come. In addition, the United States is refurbishing the former Soviet air base at Atyrau, on Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea coast; the White House says this facility could be used by US and Kazakh troops for "joint training in the area of counter-terrorism." The Defense Department is also considering the acquisition of a similar facility in Azerbaijan, which is now receiving US funds for the creation of its own Caspian Sea navy.

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