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It didn’t have to be this way. Both governments should have anticipated the difficulties
that the basing question would entail as South Korea’s democracy moved forward. After
all, it is not unexpected that as authoritarian countries democratize, and political activism
becomes freer, protests against the stationing of foreign military troops on their soil
increase. Many of the issues that provoke concern among the South Korean population,
such as the environmental, crime and safety problems associated with the bases, have
provoked similar protests against U.S. bases across the globe. In particular, South
Korea’s neighbor of Okinawa, Japan presents a case that both the U.S. and Korean
governments might have heeded more as the 1990s wore on.
This paper will highlight some of the key historical and more current issues involved in
the U.S.-South Korea basing relationship. Understanding the history and politics of this
relationship may not only help improve alliance relations there in the future, but may also
prod Washington to pay more attention to its basing policies elsewhere in the world.
Other bases could suffer a similar fate in the future, especially as authoritarian regimes
located in crucial security hot-spots face pressures for political change and
democratization.
Strategic Interests and the Current Draw-down
At the moment, the two countries each face a variety of concerns, not all compatible with
each other, that have influenced the base relocation negotiation process. On the Korean
peninsula today, rather than being primarily concerned about the kind of conventional
attack from the north that originally motivated the basing presence, Washington is
Convention