By Marc Eliot Stein, World BEYOND War, March 30, 2026
A loose coalition of peace activists around the world is working to call attention to the vicious growing problem of foreign military bases (or, as we call them in Episode 82 of the World BEYOND War podcast, imperial outposts, attack vectors or honey traps for World War Three). It was on a conference call with “Base Nation” and “United States of War” author David Vine that I met Dr. Sahar Khan, a national security analyst and expert in nuclear nonproliferation, foreign military bases and South Asian politics and invited her to help me and our listeners cope with the alarming news of multiple bombings and attacks on all sides in the Persian Gulf and near the Strait of Hormuz following the incredibly misguided and reckless USA/Israel rush to war against Iran that began this month.
US military bases in so-called Gulf States like Qatar and United Arab Emirates are now flashpoints in this growing war, and I knew we’d need an expert like Sahar Khan to help us thread through the various ordeals. Since this is a no-agenda podcast, we went off on many tangents, beginning with the fascinating story of how an uncle in Karachi, Pakistan once helped her as a teenager find her way to a career in politics by challenging her to read a book. We talked about the political culture and population mix in the Gulf states, and about how the racism of India’s rising right wing appears to reflect foreign influence more than Indian heritage. Hearing about Sahar’s work for the Cato Institute and the Institute of Global Affairs, I confronted her with a question I’ve always wanted to ask a person who works for a think tank: are think tanks good or evil?
Spoiler alert: the answer is definitely yes. I had a great free-ranging conversation with Sahar Khan that I hope will strike chords and ring bells with many of the deeply concerned peace activists in this difficult time of rising war all over the world.
Books and research mentioned in this episode include “Taliban” by Ahmad Rashid, “Withdrawing from Overseas Bases” by John Glaser, “Base Nation”, “United States of War” and “Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia” by David Vine, and “Base Politics: Democratic Change and the U.S. Military Overseas” by Alexander Cooley. Musical excerpt: “Meri Jaan” by Daniya Kanwal.
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