Military Base Sovereignty

Military base sovereignty is the pattern in How to get what Greenland has, with permission where a state gains strategic control through bases, jurisdiction, and access rights rather than formal annexation. Daniel Immerwahr uses the idea to explain why modern expansion can be quieter than conquest or purchase.

The source’s clearest example is Guantanamo Bay: it is in Cuba, Cuba has asked the United States to leave, and the U.S. has not left. The episode also notes that flags, soil, host-country rules, and jurisdiction can become politically sensitive when a base starts to look like sovereignty in practice.

For Greenland, the concept matters because the U.S. already has extensive defense access under long-running arrangements with Greenland and Denmark. That makes the practical strategic question less about buying the island and more about whether existing or expanded access can serve warning, missile-defense, and space-surveillance needs without destabilizing allied relations.

Connections

• Daniel Immerwahr and How to Hide an Empire - historical frame for the concept.
• Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and United States - base-sovereignty example.
• Greenland, Denmark, and Greenland Strategic Access - Arctic defense-access application.
• Strategic Access Without Annexation - broader institutional alternative to territorial acquisition.