Base encounters: the US Armed Forces in South Korea

Base Encounters explores the social friction that US bases have caused in South Korea, where nearly 30,000 US soldiers remain stationed. Crimes committed in GI entertainment areas have been amplified by an outraged public as both a symbol for—and a symptom of—the uneven relationship between the United States and the small East Asian nation. Elisabeth Schober’s excellent ethnographic history scrutinises these controversial zones of encounter in and near Seoul. Sharing the lives of soldiers, female entertainers, and anti-base activists, she gives a comprehensive introduction to the social, economic, and political factors that have contributed to the tensions over US bases in South Korea.