The military of the United States is deployed in most countries around the world, with between 160,000 to 170,000 of its active-duty personnel stationed outside the United States and its territories. This list consists of deployments excepting active combat deployments, including troops in Syria and Yemen. Outside of active combat, US personnel are typically deployed as part of several peacekeeping missions,

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

s, or are part of

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...

and

consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth coun ...

security. Nearly 40,000 are assigned to classified missions in locations that the US government refuses to disclose.

Rationale

A longstanding justification for maintaining military installations worldwide for the United States is that a military presence abroad by the U.S. promotes and strengthens democracy. According to Hermann and Kegley, military interventions have boosted democracy in other nations. The majority of academics, however, concur with professor of international politics Abraham Lowenthal that American efforts to spread democracy have been "negligible, often counterproductive, and only occasionally positive" JoAnn Chirico believes that the U.S. military presence and installations are often considered responsible for suppressing democracy in countries such as Cameroon, Chad, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kuwait, Niger, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. According to

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

, American authorities also believe that assisting authoritarian regimes or what they refer to as "friendly governments" benefits the United States and other nations. Journalist

Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...

states that the strategic justification for American support of dictatorships around the world has remained constant since World War II: In her essay,

Dictatorships and Double Standards "Dictatorships and Double Standards" is an essay by Jeane Kirkpatrick published in the November 1979 issue of ''Commentary Magazine'' which criticized the foreign policy of the Carter administration. It is also the title of a 270-page book written ...

, Kirkpatrick argues that although the United States should encourage democracy, it should be understood that premature reforms may cause a backlash that could give the Communists an opportunity to take over. For this reason, she considered it legitimate to support non-communist dictatorships, adding that a successful and sustainable democratic process is likely to be a long-term process in many cases in the Third World. The essence of the so-called

Kirkpatrick Doctrine The Kirkpatrick Doctrine was the doctrine expounded by United States Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick in the early 1980s based on her 1979 essay, "Dictatorships and Double Standards".Jeane Kirkpatrick,Dictatorships and Double Stand ...

is the use of selective methods to advance democracy in order to contain the wave of communism.

Current deployments

The following regional tables provide detail of where personnel from five branches of the US military are currently deployed. These numbers do not include any military or civilian contractors, dependents or the

United States Space Force The United States Space Force (USSF) is the space service branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and the world's only independent space force. Along with its sister branch, the U.S. Air Force, the Space ...

. Additionally, countries in which US military are engaged in active combat operations are not included. The numbers are based on the most recent

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

statistics as of September 30, 2022.

Americas

East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Pacific Ocean

Europe

West Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Indian Ocean

Unspecified

References

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