In 1941, the United States entered into an agreement with the United Kingdom on the lease of naval and air bases to Newfoundland, Bermuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Antigua, Trinidad, and British Guiana.146 Although the rental agreement is not a stand-alone SOFA, it was intended to obtain a SOFAS on the sites indicated. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the United States and the United Kingdom entered into additional lease agreements that included status protection provisions on leased sites. SOFAs are often part, along with other types of military agreements, of a comprehensive security agreement with a given country. A sofa itself is not a safety device; Rather, it defines the rights and privileges of U.S. personnel who are in a country to support the largest security agreement. SOFAs may, on the basis of powers, be enshrined in previous treaties and congressional actions or as executive agreements only. The United States is currently a party to more than 100 agreements that can be considered SAAs. A list of current agreements at the end of this report is arranged in the tables by source of underlying authority, if any, for each of the SOFAs. There has been some controversy as to whether these agreements could be duly concluded by the executive, on behalf of the United States, without the participation of Congress.121 Security agreements that interfere with the United States to take military action to defend another country have generally been ratified in the form of treaties.122 Involving Iraq and perhaps defending the Iraqi government against threats to external or internal security requires congressional approval to be legally binding under U.S. law. On the other hand, congress, having authorized the president to participate in military operations in Iraq, pursuant to the authorization to use military force against Iraq in 2002 and subsequent funding measures, implicitly authorized the president to enter into short-term agreements with Iraq that would facilitate those operations.123 In support of the United States.
The United States has entered into security and insurance agreements with foreign countries36 These agreements can be concluded in various forms, including a collective defense agreement (which obliges the parties to the agreement to help defend a party to the agreement in the event of a breach of the agreement), an agreement that includes a consultation requirement (a part of the agreement). ns undertakes to take action if the security of another country is threatened, an agreement that grants the right to military intervention (which gives a party the right, but not the obligation, to intervene militarily on the territory of another party to defend it against internal or external threats), or any other non-binding agreement (unilateral commitment or declaration of principle). . . .