| The United States routinely uses military power to impose grand plans for peacekeeping and nation-building. From Korea to Iraq, the U.S. military has been a driving force in this era of American Empire. Given this empire's global reach, what are its local impacts? Crime and environmental contamination are the most obvious. But for many residents living near America's overseas bases or outposts, land use patterns are the most significant concern. While there are ideological critiques to the global presence of the U.S. military, this study offers a critique of empire's spatial dimensions.; In Part I, I analyze how the U.S. marks its territories and discuss the spatial impacts of projecting imperial might. In Part II, I examine how the U.S. applies rigid design practices and inflexible institutional policies to create America Towns across the globe. In Part III, using case studies from Italy, South Korea, and Japan, I show how the U.S. exploits geopolitical events to justify the building and expansion of its outposts. I employ an institutional ethnography using spatial analysis, interviews, surveys, and archival research. This method helps uncover how planners use familiar modes of practice to create familiar models of spatial development.; I posit that in building these outposts, the U.S. has exported suburbia and its sprawling land use patterns, replete with low densities and auto-dependency. Additionally, I suggest that the U.S. has established a new approach to managing its dominion. Empires long ago abandoned policies of assimilation, a model of consciously eliminating the cultures of the colonized. The more recent approach has been association, with empires reluctantly acknowledging the cultural norms of their "hosts." After September 11, avoidance has become the standard. The U.S. military is relocating into the hinterlands and retreating into isolated compounds.; This study shows how imperial cultures transport their socio-spatial practices to diverse geographic settings, regardless of local concerns. This process engraves the military's incessant focus on command and control across the landscape. On America's outposts, underlying superficial attempts at architectural compatibility are policies of fear and desires for familiarity that drastically increase the economic, social, and political costs of empire's reach. |
