I am profoundly grateful to everyone who helped me complete this book. Given the breadth of the book’s subject matter and geographic scope, I could not have written it without the assistance and generosity of hundreds of people. Thank you especially to everyone who spoke with me about my research, who hosted me during my travels, and who helped arrange visits, tours, meetings, interviews, interpretation and translation, access to research materials, meals, lodging, transportation, and other critical pieces of the project. Authorship rightly belongs to all of us collectively.
With that in mind, I know there is no way to appropriately thank all the people and organizations who helped me. Even listing them all here has been a challenge, and I apologize in advance to anyone I accidentally overlooked. Because I promised anonymity to some of the people I met and interviewed, I cannot thank them by name but their contributions have been critical and I am grateful to them all. Readers should note that acknowledgment by name indicates neither that I used an individual’s words or ideas in the text nor that an individual supports any of my conclusions.
For research about Diego Garcia, I will always be incredibly grateful to the Chagos Refugees Group, Chagos Committee (Seychelles), Chagos Football Association, Olivier Bancoult and the entire Bancoult family, Bernadette Dugasse, Richard Gifford, Phil Harvey, Sabrina Jean, Laura Jeffery, Robin Mardemootoo, Peter Sand, Wojtek Sokolowski, Dick Kwan Tat, Maureen Tong, Andy Worthington, and many, many others. Thank you also to Michael and Jane Tigar, Ali Beydoun, and all the remarkable members, past and present, of the American University UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic.
In Ecuador, my deepest thanks to Maria Amelia Viteri and David Barmettler for making all my research—and an unexpectedly extended stay—possible. Thanks also to Toby Bonilla, Alberto Chonillo, Cristina Camacho, Erin Fitz-Henry, Rafael Jacque, Gualdemar Jimenez, Laura Gonzalez, Marcos Martínez, Miguel Moran, Daniel Ponton, Edgar Rios, Fredy Rivera, and my hosts and friends in Manta. I owe a special acknowledgment to the widows and other family members of those who died on the Jorge IV. Thank you for sharing such a terrible and sad part of your lives. Although I could not write about the Jorge IV in this book, I will be sharing your story soon.
In Germany, thank you to Chris Capps-Schubert, Meike Capps, Barbara Danowski, Bärbel Felden, Flachi, Peter Gramm, Colonel Douglas Hammer, Thomas Leuerer, Maria Höhn, Boris-André Meyer, Elsa Rassbach, Katja Sipple, Rainer Stache, and many others in Ansbach who welcomed me so warmly, Tommy and Rike and all my biking friends with DFG-VK, and the public affairs offices at Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, including Major Elizabeth Aptekar, Sandra Archer, Kilian Bluemlein, Juan Melendez, Chuck Roberts, and Marie Shaw.
On Guam and in the Northern Mariana Islands, I am deeply grateful for the help of Julian Aguon, Major Aisha Bakkar, Michael Bevacqua, Leevin Camacho, Hope Cristobal Sr., Hope Cristobal Jr., the entire Cristobal family, Annette Donner, Cara Flores-Mayes, Angelique Gonzales, LisaLinda Natividad, James Oelke, Melvin Pat-Borja, Toni Ramirez, Scott Russell, Desiree Taimanglo, Vanessa Warheit, the wonderful couple identified in this book as “Miguel and Janice Mueller,” as well as the Andersen Air Force Base public affairs office, attendees at Navy Base Guam Rosh Hashanah services, the Guam Chamber of Commerce and its armed services committee, MITT EIS representatives who graciously helped answer my questions, the University of Guam, Famoksaiyan, and We are Guåhan.
For my research in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, thank you to Jana Lipman, Mark Denbeaux, Anant Raut, and the public affairs offices and all those I met (but cannot name) at Naval Station Guantánamo Bay and Joint Task Force GTMO, whose help and friendship I greatly appreciate.
For my research in Honduras, a huge thanks to Jeremy Bigwood, Dario Euraque, Dana Frank, Adam Isaacson, Bertha Oliva and COFADEH, Adrienne, Lilia, Camille, Oscar, Simón, the public affairs office at Soto Cano Air Base, and many other Hondurans and U.S. military personnel and officials whom I cannot name for reasons of confidentiality.
In Italy, there are more people to thank than space allows. Please know that I will always treasure my experiences and all the people I met in Vicenza, Napoli, Pisa/Livorno, Roma, Genova, and beyond. Thanks to Laura Bettini, Michael Blim, Cinzia Bottene, Lenka Coufalíková, Manuel Falsarella, Giorgio Gallo, Lindsay Harris, Chiara Ingrosso, Olol Jackson, Francesco Lenci, Antonio Mazzeo, Fabio Mini, Marco Palma, Panificio Claretta, Francesco Pavin, Alberto Peruffo, Mario Pianta, Pizzeria da Michele, Gordon Poole, Kambiz Razzaghi, Susana Revolti, Angelica Romano, Philip Rushton, Sonia Salvini, carabinieri “Starksy and Hutch,” Alix Tindall, Laura Testoni, Mayor Achille Variati, Stephanie Westbrook, Katherine Wilson and Salvatore Avallone, Laura Zanardi, Giorgio Zanardi, and Berti, as well as many, many more in Vicenza, including Anna, Caterina, Delfino, Diletta, Emanuele, Fede, Grappa, Janis, Jimi, La Billo, Lorena, Marta, Martina, Massimo, Monica, Moran, Nicoletta, Rosella, Ska, Umberto, and all the amazing volunteers who have made the Festival No Dal Molin possible. Thanks also to the following groups: Assemblea Permanente We Want Sex, Casa per la Pace, Presidio Permanente No Dal Molin, Gruppo Donne No Dal Molin, and the public affairs offices at U.S. Army Garrison Vicenza and Aviano Air Base. A very special grazie to Guido Lanaro, Giulia Rampon, Chiara Spadaro, Francesca Marin, and Marco Palma for their help with interpretation, translation, analysis, and so much more in Vicenza. Grazie mille to Luca Rigon and Martina Copiello and to everyone who always welcomed me so warmly at Ca’ Fornaci and made my research possible in so many ways. To Enzo Ciscato, Annetta Reams, and Emily Ciscato, I am listening to “Thank You” as I write this and will be forever grateful for all that we have shared.
In Japan, I am deeply thankful to Kozue Akibayashi, Lawrence Berlin, Daniel Broudy, Mitzi Uehara Carter, Robert Eldridge, Daniel Garrett, Eiichiro Ishiyama, Masami Mel Kawamura, Chie Miyagi, Christopher Nelson, Masahide Ota, Junko Otsuki, Michael and Gretchen Robbins, Makiko Sato, Peter Simpson, Chiyomi Sumida, Suzuyo Takazato, Yuki Tanaka, Miyume Tanji, Sunao Tobaru, Jessica Torres, Travis Tritten, Rose Welsch, Ginowan City Hall, the public affairs office at Kadena Air Base, Camp Smedley Butler, and many more friends and hosts in Tokyo, Iwakuni, Fukuoka, Naha, Takae, and Henoko. Special thanks for the help and always thoughtful engagement of Sayo, Jessica, Erin, Philemon, Elise, Anthony, Claire, Cydni, Daniel, Bethany, Tori, Huong, Vijaya, Chandler, and Charmaine.
For my research in South Korea, thank you to Christine Ahn, Wooksik Cheong, Sung-Hee Choi, Youngsil Kang, YouKyoung Ko, Mayor Dong-Kyun Kang, Seungsook Moon, Alpha Newberry, Hye-Ran Oh, Jung-Eun Park, Yunae Park, Regina Pyon, So-Hee Lee, Emily Wang, Yu Youngnim, the staff at Durebang, and all the wonderful and inspiring friends that I met on Jeju and elsewhere in Korea.
In the United States and elsewhere, thank you to Holly Barker, Gen. B. B. Bell, Rob Borofsky, Michael Cernea, Ted Conover, Kelvin Crow, CUNY’s Graduate Center, Dave Davis, Peggy Madden Davitt, Ray DuBois, Lacy Dwyer, Daniel Else, Mieke Eoyang, Hermon Farahi, Paul Farmer, Bruce Gagnon, Lesley Gill, Dayne Goodwin, Zoltan Grossman, Matt Gutmann, Dud Hendrick, Andrew Hoehn, Amy Holmes, Raed Jarrar, Barbara Rose Johnston, Kyle Kajihiro, Rev. Deborah Lee, Louise Lennihan, Edward Luttwak, Tom Maloney, Barbara Miller, Leith Mullings, Network of Concerned Anthropologists, John Pike, Walter Pincus, Estefania Ponti, Barry Pavel, Henry Precht, Stephen Rossetti, Deb Sawyer, Lenny Siegel, Kent Slowinski, Sarah Stillman, SWAN, Nick Turse, Wilbert van der Zeijden, Andrew Yeo, Lesley Sharp, Nancy Chen, the School of Advanced Research and our Biosecurity and Vulnerability conference, and all the Pentagon officials and public affairs officers who assisted with my work, among many others. Thank you very much to Conrad Martin and the Stewart R. Mott Foundation’s Fund for Constitutional Government for a grant to support some of my research travel in 2011–2012.
Among my many teachers, several base experts deserve special thanks for teaching me so generously, for their pathbreaking work, and for their friendship. They include Cynthia Enloe, John Feffer, Joseph Gerson, Hugh Gusterson, John Lindsay-Poland, Catherine Lutz, Kate McCaffrey, Miriam Pemberton, and Emira Woods.
In the writing of Base Nation, I am deeply thankful for the careful reading that many people gave to the book’s chapters and for their thoughtful feedback. Others provided timely and much-needed advice about the book cover, title, and maps. They include Julian Aguon, Dan Aibel, Leevin Camacho, Natalie Chwalisz, Enzo Ciscato, Annie Claus, Bill Cummings, Cynthia Enloe, John Feffer, Dana Frank, Beth Geglia, Joseph Gerson, Sam Goodstein, Joan Greenbaum, Lindsay Harris, Dan Hirsch, Maria Höhn, Amy Holmes, Kate Horner, Ben King, Gwyn Kirk, Josh Kletzkin, Brooke Kroeger, Guido Lanaro, Willow Lawson, John Lindsay-Poland, Jana Lipman, Kate McCaffrey, Siobhán McGuirk, Anna Mecagni, Trisha Miller, Satoko Norimatsu, James Oelke, Alix Olson, Marco Palma, Joowon Park, Miriam Pemberton, Adrienne Pine, Marsha Pinson, Rachel Pinson, Max Pinson, Estefania Ponti, Elsa Rassbach, Annetta Reams, Joeva Rock, Chiara Spadaro, Elly Truitt, Kalfani Ture’, Adam Vine, Joanne Vine, John Vine, Katherine Wilson, and Laura Zanardi.
Thank you to my wonderful Writers’ Group friends, Hilary Galland, Kate Horner, Sarah Hughes, Andrea Johnson, Radha Kuppalli, and Adrienne Pine, not just for their brilliant feedback but also for enriching my life. I am incredibly grateful to Anna Stein for helping me craft my book proposal and improve my writing over many years. Thanks to Fred Appel for his long-standing support and friendship. Thank you to Chuck Lewis for taking an interest in my work and encouraging me with such enthusiasm. Thanks to Arnie and Susan Lutzker for generously helping with the book contract.
I will always be profoundly indebted to Shirley Lindenbaum and Michael Tigar for giving me the opportunity to work with the Chagossians and thus setting me on this path. Thank you, Brooke Kroeger, for your never-ending support, advice, and mentorship as a writer and in life. You are always there for me, and I am so grateful. Thanks to Rob Rosenthal for always being there no matter how much time has passed since the last visit.
At Metropolitan Books and Henry Holt, thank you to everyone who made the production of this book possible. Without exception, the entire team has been incredibly helpful and a pleasure to work with. I will be always grateful that you embraced this book and helped it into the world. Thank you especially to Sara Bershtel and Grigory Tovbis for your incredible editing work and for all you have done to guide the book and me through the publication process. Grigory, thank you for your remarkably hard work. You helped me clarify my writing and my thinking, and you improved the book in innumerable ways. I can’t thank you enough for all your patience and willingness to forge the book together in such a collaborative fashion.
Thanks also to Kelly Too for your beautiful design work; to David Shoemaker and the other designers who created such a powerful cover and listened so carefully to my feedback; to Connor Guy and Christopher O’Connell for all of your terrific and hard work in the production process; and to Emily DeHuff for your careful copyediting and the many ways you improved the book, in both style and substance.
I will always be grateful to Tom Engelhardt and Steve Fraser for allowing me to join the “American Empire” series. I long harbored a dream that I might publish Base Nation in your important collection of books. Thank you for making it possible and for all your guidance, advice, and support. Thanks, too, to Tom for supporting my writing at TomDispatch.com. You made another of my wishes come true when you published my first article. I can’t thank you enough for your help, your patience, and your understanding, when I know I’ve given you more than a few headaches!
Special appreciation also goes to Kelly Martin, the book’s cartographer. Thank you, Kelly, for your incredibly hard work over such a long time. You produced gorgeous maps that are an incredibly important addition to the book. I can’t thank you enough for putting up with my frequent changes and for working together to bring to life my vision for the maps. Thanks also to Johnny Harris and John Emerson for your equally hard work, and patience, on the Guam, Okinawa, and “Native Lands” maps. Thank you to all the wonderful photographers whose work is found in these pages and to everyone who granted permission to use an image.
At American University, thank you to so many colleagues and friends for your help and support through all the years that I worked on this book. Thank you to everyone in the Department of Anthropology community—undergraduates, graduates, faculty, and staff—for assisting me in so many ways. I wish I could name everyone here, but please know that I feel incredibly lucky to share a home with all of you. A special thanks goes to several remarkable research assistants who provided critical help: Mohammed Ali Lutfy, Andrea Elganzoury, Laura Jung, Menna Khalil, Sayo Saruta, and Michel Tinguiri. Thanks to Siobhán McGuirk for your always thoughtful work, often with tight deadlines, and for continually pushing my thinking (on bases, football, and otherwise). Thanks also to many tremendous colleagues who have taught me so much: Mysara Abu-Hashem, Sammi Aryani, Hope Bastian Martinez, Sarah Block, Abby Conrad, Robert Craycraft, Kaelyn Forde, Sean Furmage, Allie Gardner, Sabrina Gavigan, Beth Geglia, Harjant Gill, Rebecca Stone Gordon, Tony Gualtieri, Jeanne Hanna, Nell Haynes, Patrick Irelan, Dylan Kerrigan, Ben King, Anoosh Khan, Kelly Kundrat, Adomas Lapinskas, Emily Lelandais, Karen Lindsey, Julie Maldonado, Tam Mihailovic, Devin Molina, Ana Rebecca Mora, Deborah Murphy, Michelle Nelson, Kara Newhouse, Alexandra Papagno, Joowon Park, Chris Partridge, Becca Peixotto, Joeva Rock, Alyssa Rohricht, Serafima Rombe-Shulman, Carolina Sandoval, Rebecca Simpson, Michael Slater, Micah Trapp, Rodolfo Tello Abanto, Matt Thomann, Kalfani Ture’, John Villecco, and Matt Wickens among many others. (Sorry not to be able to include everyone!)
Thank you to everyone in my “Understanding War, Building Peace” and “Writing Ethnography” classes, the Anthropology of Militarism Clinic, and the Thesis and Dissertation Seminar, as well as my other classes, for allowing me to share some of my thinking about the book and works in progress. Your feedback and encouragement have been incredibly helpful. Thank you to Juana Castro, Marta Portillo, Jacki Daddona, Jennifer Miranda, Stacy Terrell, and Jeanie Wogaman, and all our great work-study students for your terrific support.
Thank you to my other great colleagues who have supported me as friends and academics: Geoff Burkhart, Annie Claus, Audrey Cooper, Joe Dent, Nell Gabiam, Joan Gero, Dolores Koenig, Chap Kusimba, Sibel Kusimba, Bill Leap, David Lowry, Bryan McNeil, Adrienne Pine, Sabiyha Prince, Dan Sayers, Gretchen Schafft, Nina Shapiro-Perl, Judith Singleton, Ed Smith, Emily Steinmetz, Ayako Takamori, Sue Taylor, Brett Williams, Rachel Watkins, and Joshua Woodfork. A special thanks goes to Bill and Brett for being remarkable mentors, scholarly models, and friends; to Annie for reading and commenting on my writing, not to mention the baking; and to Adrienne for all your bighearted help in making my Honduras research possible.
Many others at American University have also been incredibly supportive. Thank you to Dean Peter Starr and Provost Scott Bass and the College of Arts and Sciences for providing research funds and critical time away from teaching, without which I could not have completed this book. Thanks also to many other wonderful supporters and friends, including Gordon Adams, Jennifer Arnold, Kim Blankenship, Daniel Esser, Mimi Fittig, Peggy Eskow, Max Paul Friedman, Nikhat Ghouse, Louis Goodman, Hadar Harris, Peter Kuznick, Carl LeVan, Charles Lewis, Jordan Maidman, Celine Marie-Pascale, Lynne Perri, Gwendolyn Reece, Cathy Schneider, Courtney Schrader, Susan Shepler, U. J. Sofia, Shoshana Sumka, Lauren Tabbara, Salvador Vidal-Ortiz, Barbara Wien, Sharon Weiner, Elizabeth Worden, and Matt Zembrzuski and the IRB.
There are many other beloved friends and family who have supported, sustained, and assisted me through this long process. Although I will surely forget some (sorry!), they include Roberto Abadie, Tick Ahearn, Max and Sonja Aibel, Sarah Kowal Alden, Blumenthals, Lisa Braun, Natalie Chwalisz, CAJ, Patricia Cogley, Jon and Gabriel Cook and Caroline Simmonds, Lindsay Davison, Dworkins, Andrew Epstein, FCB, Eric Frater, French’s Dry Cleaners, Fritz, the Gan, the Goobs, Theo Goodstein, Alex Goren, Shaun and Adelaide Greenbaum and Antonia Stout, Josep Guardiola, Mamadou Gueye, Claire and Sue and Rudy Hirsch, Joanne Hirsch and A. T. Stephens, Megan Isaacson, Kiki Jenkins, Elizabeth Kanter, Lynn and Morris and David Kletzkin, Amy and Ken and Lydia and Rachel Krupsky, Linda Kuzmack, Nicole Laborde and Dylan Turner, Randi and Steve and Brenna Lavelle, Brian and Todd Levin, Kanhong Lin, Rae Linefsky, Kristen Lionetti, Lori Lovell and Shaun and Khyrell and Kiara McNeil, Leo M., Carola Mandelbaum and Roee and Olivia and Amalia Raz, Anna Mecagni, Enio and Concha and Leticia Molina, Derek Musgrove, Elli Nagai-Rothe, Kellye Nakahara, Jaime and Zinn Olson-Masick, Gary Olson, Laura Olson, Sascha Paladino, Park Monroe, Quincy Street, Reyes family, Alison and Matt and Vivian and Veronica Rodgers, Rosenthals, Cliff Rosky, TaRita Scott, Mara Silver, Ed and Ellen and Jeremy and David and Jonathan Singer-Vine, Mitzi Sinnott, Roy Skeen, Mary Stephens, everyone at Stevens Plumbing, Karen Storey and Pam Dickinson and all the friends I met on Amtrak as I finished the book, Cathy Sulzberger and Joe Perpich, Maria Tonguino, Jancy Tonken, Mauricio Tscherny, Ellis Turner, Hugh and Lydia Vine, Lee Ving, David Vise, Katie Wiedmann, Vanessa White, and Deb Yurow.
Finally, thank you Mom, Dad, Joanne, Adam, Rachel, and Max for your love and never-ending support every day. I love you.
In addition to those named at the start of the book, Base Nation is dedicated to the memory of several of the most important and inspiring teachers and guides I will ever have. They will always be with us: Doere Bernhard, Vera Isenberg, Marty Pinson, Neil Smith, Lisette Aurélie Talate, and Neal Tonken.