Seeking Security

The United States is slated to get a new military base — this time in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Last month, during high-level talks in Honolulu, the US Indo-Pacific Command and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) agreed to build a new base in the island nation, an archipelago of more than 600 islands strewn across the Western Pacific, some 3,700 miles from Hawaii. The move is seen as another component of the Biden administration’s continued effort to increase its footprint in Oceania. However, details about the base, so far, are scarce, causing anxiety for some FSM citizens who are worried about disruptions to their way of life, and wary about the idea of American military expansion in the region.Related: The pandemic wiped out tourism on Pacific island nationsSam Illesugam, 41, has lots of questions about the new military base: How big? What kind of base?“All of those questions are still very much up in the air for us,” Illesugam told The World. Illesugam, who now lives and works in the US territ