2019/07/28 by Claudia J. Kim, Claudia Junghyun Kim, Taylor C. Boas
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Political Influence and Corporate Strategies
paper · doi:10.1177/0095327x19864127
openalex publication_date 2019/07/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Do activists seeking to challenge the U.S. military presence overseas succeed in persuading the local population? While the comparative literature on base contestation often makes implicit causal claims about public opinion and behavior, these claims have never been tested empirically using individual-level data. Based on an online survey, experiment with residents of communities hosting U.S. military bases in Korea and Japan, we demonstrate a disconnect between anti-base movements and local residents. Local public opinion is most responsive to pragmatic framing of opposition by social movements and tangible information about the consequences of base expansion. Other common activist tactics have little effect and may even backfire. Our findings fill an important gap in the growing literature on the politics of U.S. military bases abroad.