Politics and military base closures

Public law specifies that base closure recommendations be made on the basis of military value. However, anecdotes and opinion have implied that politics or other factors influence the base closure recommendations. Several studies have found political influence to be a significant variable in base closure decisions, but these studies have not considered military value. This dissertation includes the military value of the base in the analysis and concludes that the military value of an installation is the variable most significantly related to base closure decisions by the BRAC commission - as specified in BRAC law.