Foreign Military Bases in Eurasia

[Pages:78]Foreign Military Bases in Eurasia

SIPRI Policy Paper No. 18

Zdzislaw Lachowski

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute

June 2007

? SIPRI, 2007 ISSN 1652-0432 (print) ISSN 1653-7548 (online)

Printed in Sweden by CM Gruppen, Bromma

Contents

Preface

iv

Abbreviations and acronyms

v

Map of British, French, Soviet and US troops based abroad in Eurasia, 1990 vi

Map of Russian, US and other troops based abroad in Eurasia, 2006?2007 vii

1. Introduction

1

A historical overview

2

2. Reconfiguring US foreign bases

5

Background

5

The changing policy of US foreign base alignment

6

The new US global posture

12

US domestic criticism

16

Table 2.1. Major NATO and US military bases in Eurasia

8

3. Repositioning NATO and US bases in Europe

20

Germany

23

South-Eastern Europe: the Black Sea bases

24

Central Europe

27

The Eastern Mediterranean region

29

4. South-West and North-East Asia

31

South-West Asia

31

East Asia and the Indian Ocean region

36

5. Russia and the near abroad: from retreat to recapture

43

Central Asia: replaying the `Great Game'?

46

Russia's southern perimeter

56

Belarus: facing NATO's advance

62

Table 5.1. Major Russian foreign military bases and installations in Eurasia 46

6. Conclusions

63

About the author

69

Preface

The basing of military forces on foreign territory, at locations leased from or co-occupied with the local authorities (or, rarely, held extraterritorially), is a practice almost as old as warfare itself. Bases can have an economic, political or demonstrative rationale but in all periods their pattern has been linked with the strategic dictates and relationships of the time. Observing changes in the way they are placed, owned and used can provide many clues to the most significant trends of security evolution. This paper examines what has been happening in basing practices in Eurasia since the end of the cold war.

Up to 1989?90, bases were used by the Soviet Union, the United States and their military alliances in an essentially symmetrical way. Each side clustered its forward bases in the heart of Europe to block and deter the other, while the larger powers competed for extra-European bases that could serve their global mobility or give an edge in regional conflicts. That pattern has been replaced by a less symmetric and possibly transitional situation. In places such as Central Asia, the South Caucasus and the eastern edge of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Russia and the USA are still engaged in a mutual balancing game. More broadly, however, US basing policy has been transformed by the demands of the global campaign against new (including non-state) threats and of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq; while Russia's overall basing pattern has drawn inwards to provide a defensive cordon around its territory and to pin down its remaining allies. Neither great power has found the process simple, and the USA in particular has run into sensitive disputes with friendly host countries as well as suspicions and protests from Russia. US basing has also become a more nationally driven policy, with new examples of NATO's collective use of facilities limited to the new theatres of conflict outside Europe. Emerging powers like China and India are barely starting to join in the basing game but seem likely to have such ambitions in future.

Zdzislaw Lachowski tells the story of Euro-Asian basing changes in meticulous detail in this paper, bringing together a collection of facts and lessons that has not been easily accessible in one place before. His conclusions raise interesting questions about the rationality and viability of current basing strategies, hinting that further changes might be in store as a result of global policy reassessment by future US administrations and further shifts in political relationships and the nature of regimes in the post-Soviet sphere. This analysis should be of equal value to military and political observers and to those interested in tracking the strategies of the major powers. I am grateful to Zdzislaw Lachowski for his original and thorough research, to Jetta Gilligan Borg and Caspar Trimmer for the editing, and to David Cruickshank for the maps.

Alyson J. K. Bailes Director, SIPRI June 2007

Abbreviations and acronyms

AWACS BRAC CBO CFE CIA CIS CRS CSL CSTO DOD EETF EFI ERI EU EUFOR FOB FOS GUAM IGPBS ISAF K-2 km KFOR MOB NATO OBC OSCE PAC QDR SACEUR SFOR SCO UN WTO

Airborne warning and control system Base Realignment and Closure Congressional Budget Office Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (Treaty) Central Intelligence Agency Commonwealth of Independent States Congressional Research Service Cooperative security location Collective Security Treaty Organization Department of Defense Eastern European Task Force Efficient Facilities Initiative En route infrastructure (base) European Union European Union Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina Forward operating base Forward operating site Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova Integrated Global Presence and Basing Strategy International Security Assistance Force Karshi?Khanabad (base) kilometre Kosovo Force Main operating base North Atlantic Treaty Organization Overseas Basing Commission Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Patriot Advanced Capability (missile) Quadrennial Defense Review Supreme Allied Commander Europe Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina Shanghai Cooperation Organization United Nations Warsaw Treaty Organization

28 73

56 65

70 40

240 380

3

Iceland

2 9 3 3 15

3

Nether-

lands UK

E.

Belgium W. Germany

Poland

Czechoslovakia Hungary

Portugal Spain

Italy

Greece

Turkey

5

US personnel British personnel French personnel Soviet personnel Figures are thousands of personnel deployed

British, French, Soviet and US troops based abroad in Eurasia, 1990

55 3 17

43 50

5

Mongolia

South Korea

Japan

Viet Nam

Philippines

Guam (USA)

72 150

2 10

1 12

16 1 13

Netherlands UK Belgium

Spain

Germany Italy

Ukraine Moldova Kosovo

Greece

3

3

Georgia Armenia

12

1

US personnel

Russian personnel

Other personnel Figures are thousands of personnel deployed

Iraq

Bahrain Qatar

12 37

8 1

Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan

Afghanistan

Russian, US and other troops based abroad in Eurasia, 2006?2007

29 35

3

South Korea

Japan

Guam (USA)

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