The global landscape is changing in ways that threaten to undermine U.S. basing agreements in many parts of the world. One shift is that people are more aware than ever before of the activities of U.S. bases in their countries. In 1986, a U.S. State Department memo described U.S.-Bahraini military relations as “warm, quiet and based on a long history of mutual trust and understanding.” But today, satellite television, blogs, and social media have made it harder to keep the U.S. basing footprint quiet.
