Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Relationships between the United States and its worldwide network of allies has, since the inception of NATO, greatly revolved around the United States' ability and desire to permanently station troops oversees. Since 1941, the United States has entered into these basing agreements for a variety of strategic and sometimes political reasons. From NATO's inception, and as the cornerstone of its defensive structure, the United States has combined the idea of sending troops to different regions of the world with a global basing strategy founded on the concepts of overlapping protection and deployability. At times, to gain access to areas of strategic interest, the United States has offered aid and economic assistance along with a military presence. In other cases, positively affecting the political climate of the country was the stated goal of troop presence. This thesis will examine the effects of basing in Greece and Spain in order to uncover lessons learned which might be applied to the new US global basing plan and current troop positioning activities in Kyrgyzstan. In both cases the United States worked with openly dictatorial governments for the purposes of basing and did not foster the long term political situation initially desired. / Captain, United States Army