David Vine is assistant professor of anthropology at American University, in Washington, D.C. He is the author of Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia (Princeton University Press, 2009). He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and Mother Jones, among other places. He is currently completing a book about the more than 1,000 US military bases located outside the United States.