Outside of its own borders, the United States has around 200,000 troops deployed across the world, and maintains nearly 800 military bases, at an annual cost of $100-200 billion. But despite this unmatched global defense commitment and its cost, the US is unable to retrench—at least not in a programmatic sense. Its military forces have been forward deployed around the world for the entire post-1945 era, and there is no sign of them coming home in large numbers. If anything, policymakers in Washington, DC are looking for ways to bolster the size of the US military presence in Europe, the Middle East, and Indo-Pacific, even if there is some disagreement over which theatre should take priority.
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