NATO remains fundamentally U.S.-dominated in its military capabilities and command structure, particularly regarding global power projection, but it has evolved into a more crucial political instrument for Europe to legitimize and structure its own power projection and advance its security interests.

The dynamic is characterized by a "capability-influence paradox": European nations drive the political rationale for certain missions, but the U.S. provides the essential high-end military enablers that make large-scale global operations possible.

The resurgence of the Russian threat, however, has recently re-centered the alliance on its core, U.S.-backed mission of territorial defense, temporarily overshadowing Europe's global power ambitions.

I. U.S. Dominance in Capabilities and Command

The dominance of the U.S. within NATO, especially in its capacity to project power globally, is not merely political but structural, resting on a decisive military technological and logistical advantage.

The Asymmetry of Military Power

The vast gap between U.S. and European defense spending and capabilities is the single greatest factor ensuring U.S. dominance.

• Spending and Technology: The U.S. spends nearly twice as much on defense as all European NATO allies and Canada combined. More critically, the U.S. holds a near-monopoly on high-end, strategic military assets necessary for large-scale, sustained operations far from Europe (global power projection):

  • Strategic Enablers: This includes strategic airlift and sealift (moving large numbers of troops and heavy equipment across oceans), ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) capabilities (satellites and advanced drones), and aerial refueling assets. Without the U.S. "tail," European forces lack the ability to deploy, sustain, and command operations in distant theaters for long periods.

  • Nuclear Deterrence: The U.S. nuclear umbrella remains the ultimate guarantee of collective security, giving the U.S. unparalleled leverage in all strategic decision-making.

• Command Structure: The operational heart of NATO, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), has always been an American four-star general. This structural reality ensures that the U.S. retains ultimate command and control over NATO's integrated military forces and planning, anchoring the alliance's military strategy to U.S. global interests.

II. European Instrument for Projecting Legitimacy and Influence

While lacking the singular capabilities of the U.S., European nations actively use NATO as a collective political-military vehicle to legitimize, coordinate, and share the burden of their own power projection interests, often in regions immediately adjacent to Europe.

Global Operations: The "Flag and Burden" Strategy

European nations have used NATO to project influence globally, particularly when those missions align with key U.S. foreign policy objectives, providing legitimacy and a multinational veneer to what might otherwise be a unilateral U.S. action.

• Afghanistan (ISAF): When NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time after the 9/11 attacks, European allies committed tens of thousands of troops to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. This was the largest global power projection mission in NATO's history. While the U.S. provided the bulk of the airpower, logistics, and command, the European contribution provided the crucial political legitimacy and multilateral solidarity that cemented NATO's role as a global security actor and supported the U.S. in its "War on Terror" priority.

• Libya (Operation Unified Protector): The 2011 intervention in Libya is arguably the closest NATO has come to being a European-led power projection mission. The mission was driven by France and the UK (along with Canada) and executed under a UN mandate to protect civilians. The operation's command structure was entirely civilianized, and the majority of strike sorties were flown by European aircraft. However, even in this 'European' operation, the mission still relied heavily on critical U.S. enablers such as aerial refueling, strategic reconnaissance, and high-tech targeting intelligence, demonstrating the persistent U.S. military indispensability.

Advancing Geopolitical Interests on the Periphery

NATO is the vehicle European nations use to manage regional crises that are deemed too minor for full U.S. leadership or where U.S. involvement is politically undesirable.

• The Balkans (KFOR): European countries have shouldered the vast majority of the peacekeeping and stability operations in the Balkans (e.g., Kosovo Force, KFOR) for over two decades. These are crises on Europe's immediate border, and NATO provides the ready-made integrated command and force generation structure for European nations to manage their immediate security environment. This allows them to project stability and influence in a region vital to European security without having to create an entirely new ad-hoc military structure.

• Capacity Building: Missions like the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI) are politically driven by a collective European desire to build stability in the wider Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region, which directly impacts European migration, counter-terrorism, and energy security. By acting through NATO, European nations ensure U.S. political and limited military backing, but they define the long-term, non-combat advisory nature of the mission.

III. The New Era: Re-Prioritization to Collective Defense

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 fundamentally shifted NATO's focus away from global power projection and back to its Article 5 core mission of territorial defense, a move that reinforces the U.S. central role.

• Primacy of the Eastern Flank: The new strategic threat has made the defense of the Euro-Atlantic area the overwhelming priority. This has led to a massive increase in the presence of U.S. forward-deployed forces and the activation of extensive U.S. war planning for European defense.

• European Defense Investment as U.S. Anchor: The drive for European Strategic Autonomy (ESA) is now generally framed by most allies as the effort to build a stronger "European Pillar" within NATO, not as an alternative to it. European countries are increasing defense spending to the 2% of GDP target less for global power projection and more to secure the continued U.S. commitment to their territorial defense. By showing they are "burden-sharing," they are essentially making a political investment to anchor the indispensable U.S. military presence in Europe for the long term.

In sum, NATO remains U.S.-dominated in its capacity to execute high-end global power projection and deterrence. However, it functions as a highly effective European political instrument for securing the U.S. security guarantee and for managing and projecting European influence in its immediate periphery and in collective global crises. The alliance is thus a sophisticated fusion of U.S. military primacy and European political-strategic need.