US Base Politics and Host Nation Public Opinion

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together research on base politics that attempts to uncover determinants of host nation public opinion. The papers address crucial assumptions that have underpinned the base politics literature but have been underexplored such as the impacts of environmental degradation, sovereignty concerns, base-related crime, and economic factors on host nation public opinion. First, Allen, Farrer, Flynn, and Martinez Machain explore the environmental impacts of US bases, an issue host nation opponents often cite as a “negative externality” of the base presence. Second, Willis investigates the ways that sovereignty concerns and the visibility of the US military presence influence host nation protests against the presence through the case of the Philippines. Third, Hikotani and Tago examine Japanese citizens' Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) attitudes toward the presence of the US military in Japan. In the final paper, Rich and Einhorn assess the impact of cost-sharing on South Koreans’ perceptions of its US military presence.

Sub Unit

• Division 20: Foreign Policy

Individual Presentations

• A Salt of the Earth: US Bases and Soil Quality - Michael Allen; Benjamin Farrer, Knox College; Michael E. Flynn, Kansas State University; Carla Martinez Machain, University at Buffalo

• Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Resistance to the US Military in the Philippines - Charmaine N. Willis, University at Albany, SUNY

• U.S. Military Should Not Be in My Backyard: The Case of Okinawa - Takako Hikotani, Gakushuin University; Atsushi Tago, Waseda University

Chair

• Sebastian M. Schmidt Johns Hopkins University

Discussants

• Sebastian M. Schmidt Johns Hopkins University

• Max Zeldes Margulies United States Military Academy