List of countries with overseas military bases


This is a list of countries with overseas military bases.

Background

The establishment of military bases abroad enables a country to project power, e.g., to conduct expeditionary warfare, and thereby to influence events abroad. Depending on their size and infrastructure, they can be used as staging areas or for logistical, communications, and intelligence support. Many conflicts throughout modern history have resulted in overseas military bases being established in large numbers by world powers, and these bases have helped the countries that have established them to achieve political and military goals.
The United Kingdom and other colonial powers established overseas military bases in many of their colonies during the First and Second World Wars, where useful, and actively sought rights to facilities where needed for strategic reasons. At one time, the establishment of coaling stations for naval ships was important. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union established military bases where they could within their respective spheres of influence and actively sought influence where needed. More recently, the war on terror has resulted in overseas military bases being established in the Middle East. While the overall number of overseas military bases has fallen since 1945, the United States, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Russia, India, and France still possess or utilize a substantial number of them. Smaller numbers of overseas military bases are operated by China, Iran, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States is the largest operator of military bases abroad, with 38 "named bases" with active duty, national guard, reserve, or civilian personnel as of September 30, 2014. Its largest, in terms of personnel, was Ramstein AB in Germany, with almost 9,200 personnel.

France

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Germany

India

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Bhutan

Japan

Pakistan

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Saudi Arabia

Russia

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Armenia

Singapore

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Brunei

Türkiye

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AlbaniaBIH

United Arab Emirates

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Libya

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has thirteen overseas military bases.
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Belize

United States

The U.S. military maintains hundreds of military installations, both inside the United States and overseas. Some American bases are also NATO-led with forces from multiple countries. According to the U.S. Army, Camp Humphreys in South Korea is the largest overseas base in terms of area. Most of foreign military installations are located in NATO countries, Middle East countries, South Korea and Japan.
Countries with U.S. bases include: