Mention “The Insular Empire” to the average American, and they’d likely have no idea what you were talking about. They probably still wouldn’t get it if you gave them another clue: “America in the Mariana Islands.” These are the title and subtitle of a new film by Vanessa Warheit, which began screening on PBS earlier this year.
Japanese PM Hatoyama tries to sell Okinawa on a modified base relocation plan.
The Department of Defense plans to relocate 8,600 Marines from Okinawa (Japan) to Guam, provide additional live-fire training sites, expand Andersen Air Force Base, create berthing for a nuclear aircraft carrier, and erect a missile defense system on the island.
Washington’s plans to open a base in Okinawa is good news for nobody.
Russia Today interviews John Feffer on the Okinawa bases issue.
The new marine protection area in the Indian Ocean seems like a great step forward. Until you look at it a little more carefully.
Gavan McCormack is emeritus professor at Australian National University in Canberra, author of Client State: Japan in the American Embrace (New York, Verso, 2007, Japanese, Korean and Chinese expanded and revised editions in 2008), and a coordinator of The Asia-Pacific Journal – Japan Focus. He has written widely on Okinawa, U.S. military strategy in Asia, and U.S.-Japan relations.
The Obama administration is hearing, but not listening, when it comes to U.S. military bases.
The new Japanese government is pushing back against Washington’s plans for a new military base in Okinawa, the southernmost prefecture in Japan. This is a golden opportunity to radically shrink the U.S. military footprint on the island. But we only have a brief window during which to take advantage of this political opportunity.
It costs $250 billion a year to maintain the U.S. empire.
A forum and discussion on the costs of empire. IPS Research Fellows Miriam Pemberton and Erik Leaver will lead a discussion on military spending, military bases, and empire-building in Iraq and Afghanistan and will offer a set of policy alternatives for the new administration.
There is a sense of relief that many here in the U.S. feel after the presidential election, but we understand this is a time to step up our organizing for peace and economic justice — including the growing movement to close and withdraw the nearly 1,000 U.S. military bases located in foreign nations.
From Okinawa and Guam to Honduras, Germany, Iraq, and beyond people who have suffered from the abuses inherent to foreign military bases have been calling for their withdrawal. People in the U.S. have joined this call, outraged by the damage done by U.S. bases abroad and by their expense, which diverts $138 billion a year from addressing human needs and revitalizing our economy.
The American Friends Service Committee will be holding a national organizing conference at American University, "Security Without Empire," from February 27-March 2. Leading experts such as Miriam Pemberton, Walden Bello, and Zia Mian will share information on resistance to U.S. overseas military bases and develop new strategies for expanding the anti-bases movement. March 2 is a lobbying day.
See this link for more information and registration.
The United States’ “rimland strategy” highlights the ambiguity of its relationship with China.
UFPJ Talking Points #59: U.S. trying to “legalize” permanent occupation of Iraq; Shifting discourse on Israel-Palestine
Although Iraq is the defining foreign policy issue so far in the presidential race, China will no doubt be smuggled into the election through this rather stark contrast between the Republicans and Democrats over trade.