This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, January 31st, 2017. I'm Caleb Brown. Concerns about

closing military bases around the globe hinge upon preserving global stability and enhancing American security.

But it's worth considering the idea that perhaps all that firepower around the world

doesn't enhance U.S. security and creates unnecessary animosity.

John Glazer is Associate Director of Foreign Policy Studies

at the Cato Institute.

We spoke last week about closing military bases.

So since World War II, the United States

has adopted an expansive grand strategy where we not

only see it is in our interest to secure U.S. security, but also to ensure the peace and

stability of the world. One of the primary ways we do that is to have forward

deployed bases all over the world, especially in critical

choke points.

How many of these bases exist?

So we have about 800 military bases in about 70 or 80 countries abroad that amounts to about 270,000

plus overseas troops at any given time.

And part of the idea here is to,

when we deter adversaries, like say,

our base in South Korea deters North Korea from causing any trouble.

Or our bases in Europe deters Russia from causing any trouble in Eastern Europe.

What we do is not only deter adversaries, but we reassure allies and therefore disincentivize

them from building up their own security capabilities.

...