Social Unrest and American Military Bases in Turkey and Germany since 1945
Cambridge University Press, 5/29/2014
EAN 9781107019133, ISBN10: 1107019133
Hardcover, 250 pages, 23.5 x 16 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
Over the past century, the United States has created a global network of military bases. While the force structure offers protection to US allies, it maintains the threat of violence toward others, both creating and undermining security. Amy Austin Holmes argues that the relationship between the US military presence and the non-US citizens under its security umbrella is inherently contradictory. She suggests that while the host population may be fully enfranchised citizens of their own government, they are at the same time disenfranchised vis-à-vis the US presence. This study introduces the concept of the 'protectariat' as they are defined not by their relationship to the means of production, but rather by their relationship to the means of violence. Focusing on Germany and Turkey, Holmes finds remarkable parallels in the types of social protest that occurred in both countries, particularly non-violent civil disobedience, labor strikes of base workers, violent attacks and kidnappings, and opposition parties in the parliaments.
1. Introduction
the global American military presence in comparative perspective
2. Social unrest and the American military presence in Turkey during the Cold War
3. Social unrest and the American military presence in Germany during the Cold War
4. From shield to sword
the end of the Cold War to the invasion of Iraq
5. Conclusion
losing ground.