While media attention typically focuses on the hard power role of the US military in the Pacific, the US Navy also invests significant time and energy in the soft power potential of humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the region.

A floating hospital longer than the Washington Monument is tall has begun its mission of medical diplomacy in Jamaica, its first stop among nine Caribbean and Latin American countries. The converted oil tanker known as the United States Naval Ship Comfort is 894 feet long and carries more than 600 personnel.

With the release of the National Military Strategy on Tuesday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, laid out the military's "joint" view of the future geostrategic environment. The NMS paints a picture that suggests the U.S. military is unprepared for a post-Afghanistan and Iraq world.

U.S. military bases continue to be a point of contact between American culture and that of the host country. That's not necessarily an argument for maintaining a global basing structure, but it is an underappreciated side-effect of having one.