Joint Task Force - Bravo: The U.S. Military Presence in Honduras, U.S. Policy foran Evolving Region

摘要

In a post-Cold War period of shrinking defense budgets, bottom up reviews, and ageneral down sizing of U.S. defense forces, the Department of Defense has begun to take a realistic look at its defense needs, and size its base force accordingly. One result, is that the United States has begun to close many of its overseas bases and posts, concentrating on agile, flexibly trained forces for power projection abroad. The U.S. Southern Command (Quarry Heights, Panama) maintains a small presence at a Honduran base known as Soto Cano AB. This paper compares and contrasts the benefits and shortcomings of two policy options. The criteria used fall into four main categories: (1) Costs; (2) Economic Impact on Honduras; (3) U.S. and Honduran political ramifications; and (4) Contribution to regional military objectives.