The world has long experience of global powers seeking to influence and stabilise strategic regions by stationing armed forces around the globe. This volume reviews this history in the context of the unchallenged military supremacy of the US and considers the potential for peacetime deployments.

By stationing its military forces in a distant region of the world, can a great power hope to "shape" the peacetime political development of that region? In Presence, Prevention and Persuasion contributing scholars examine six historical periods in which British, American, and French decision-makers attempted to use a regional military predominance to influence domestic and regional political outcomes. The authors explore the types of military capabilities that appear critical in successful persuasion and prevention efforts, and the goals that conducive to this type of action.