This is the first book to survey the evolution of the strategic basing systems of the great powers, covering an 800-year span of history, from the Mongol dynasty to the era of the US empire.

Robert E. Harkavy details the progression of strategic basing systems and power projection, from its beginnings at a regional level to its current global reach, while emphasizing the interplay between political and international systemic factors (bipolar vs. multipolar systems), and technological factors. Analyzing the relationship between basing structures and national power, the book deals with such key questions as: the co-mingling of military and commercial functions for bases; sea power; geopolitical theory; imperial ‘pick-off’ during hegemonic wars; base acquisitions; continuity between basing structures; and long-term shifts in basing functions.

Strategic Basing and the Great Powers, 1200-2000 will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, military history and international relations.

Andréa Curiacos Bertolini is involved in scientific research on starch and biopolymers. She has a PhD in food science from the Université de Nantes in France, where she worked with a concentration on starch chemistry at the Institute Nationale de Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in partnership with the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD). As an invited researcher, she worked at the Fonterra Research Centre in New Zealand and at the University of Idaho in the United States on Modified Starches and Starch Rheology. At present she is a food scientist at the Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA–Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Brazil). Her interests include biopolymers with an emphasis on starch characterization, modified starches, and starch as an ingredient in food and nonfood products.