This article, mainly methodological, aims at providing an estimation of the number of US military bases and personnel on a worldwide scale. The first part proposes a periodization of the expansion and implantation of US military bases. The second part exposes the official statistical data disseminated by the US Department of Defense. The third part analyzes in a critical way the main limitations of these data, and suggests some revisions. The fourth and last part is a complement of this study on the networks of military bases of Northern countries strategically allied with the United States.
JEL Codes: E62, H56, P43