Introduction : the politics of gender, sexuality, race, and class in the U.S. military empire /Maria Höhn, Seungsook Moon -- pt. I Monitored liaisons : local women and gis in the making of empire -- Regulating desire, managing the empire : U.S. military prostitution in South Korea, 1945-1970 / Seungsook Moon -- "Pan-pan girls" performing and resisting neocolonialism(s) in the Pacific theater : U.S. military prostitution in occupied Japan, 1945-1952 / Michiko Takeuchi -- "You can't pin sergeant's stripes on an archangel" : soldiering, sexuality, and U.S. Army policies in Germany / Maria Höhn -- pt. II Civilian entanglements with the empire : American and foreign women abroad and at home -- U.S. military families abroad in the post-Cold War era and the "new global posture" / Donna Alvah -- Crossfire couples : marginality and agency among Okinawan women in relationships with U.S. military men / Chris Ames -- Hidden soldiers : working for the "national defense" / Robin Riley -- pt. III Talking back to the empire : local men and women -- In the U.S. Army but not quite of it : contesting the imperial power in a discourse of Katusas / Seungsook Moon -- "The American soldier dances, the German soldier marches" : the transformation of Germans' views on GIs, masculinity, and militarism / Maria Höhn -- In the middle of the road I stand transfixed / Christopher Nelson -- pt. IV The empire under siege : racial crisis, abuse, and violence -- The racial crisis of 1971 in the U.S. military : finding solutions in West Germany and South Korea / Maria Höhn -- Camptown prostitution and the Imperial SOFA : abuse and violence against transnational camptown women in South Korea / Seungsook Moon -- Abu Ghraib : a predictable tragedy? / Jeff Bennett -- Conclusion : empire at the crossroads? / Maria Höhn, Seungsook Moon.