European elites utilize NATO as a multi-layered tool to legitimize military interventions in regions like the Balkans, Middle East, and Africa.

This legitimization process is crucial for securing domestic political consent, distributing financial and military risk, and, most importantly, imbuing unilateral actions with multilateral and democratic authority on the world stage.

NATO functions less as a purely military force for European power projection and more as an indispensable political-legal umbrella for security-minded European governments, turning politically sensitive national deployments into internationally sanctioned collective endeavors.

I. Political and Domestic Legitimation

For European elites, the NATO framework provides essential political cover that is often difficult or impossible to achieve through purely national or ad-hoc coalition decisions.

1. Securing Parliamentary and Public Consent

A core domestic function of using the NATO structure is to make difficult, costly, and risky military interventions palatable to domestic populations and skeptical parliaments.

• Multilateral Mandate: A NATO operation, even when the rationale is primarily driven by a European nation (e.g., France/UK in Libya), carries the political weight of a consensus decision among over 30 democratic allies. This shared endorsement de-risks the intervention domestically by transforming a national foreign policy choice into an alliance-wide security commitment. For parliaments, voting to support a NATO mission is politically safer than voting for a mission launched by only the national government.

• Democratic Values: Interventions, particularly in the Balkans (Kosovo, Bosnia), were framed by European leaders as essential to upholding "Alliance values" (democracy, human rights, rule of law) against regional instability. By clothing interventions in NATO's mission to promote stability beyond its borders—the "non-Article 5 crisis response"—elites legitimize actions that might otherwise be criticized as neo-colonial or aggressive national moves.

2. The Power of Burden-Sharing

The NATO flag serves as a promise to the domestic audience that the financial, material, and human costs of a lengthy intervention will not be borne by one nation alone.

• Distributing Risk: By transforming an intervention into a NATO operation, European elites ensure a baseline of military and financial contributions from other allies, including non-participating ones who contribute through shared costs in NATO infrastructure and command. This "burden-sharing" argument is a powerful political counter to anti-war opposition, as it frames the mission as a necessary, shared cost for collective security.

• Military Interoperability: Once a mission is under NATO command (even with caveats), national forces plug into NATO's established, interoperable planning and logistics, making deployment technically easier and more effective. This efficiency is used to politically justify the decision to deploy, arguing that participation in the NATO structure offers the best chance of success and minimizes national operational risk.

II. International and Legal Legitimacy

On the global stage, using NATO allows European nations to address the fundamental legal challenge of intervening in a sovereign state.

1. Circumventing the UN Security Council Veto

The most critical use of NATO legitimacy is its capacity to act even when blocked by one of the permanent members (P5) of the UN Security Council (UNSC)—historically Russia or China—whose veto would render a UN-sanctioned mission impossible.

• The "Illegal but Legitimate" Precedent (Kosovo): The 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo was conducted without a direct UNSC resolution authorizing the use of force. European elites, particularly the UK and France, argued that the intervention was "illegal in a narrow sense, but legitimate in a wider sense" due to the overwhelming humanitarian necessity and the broad consensus among NATO's democratic states. By framing their actions within the framework of a collective, democratic alliance, they provided a robust alternative source of international legitimacy to that of the UN.

• Multilateral Cover for Forceful Actions: This model—collective action by a democratic security alliance—allows European governments to take decisive military action in regions like the Balkans (a critical area for European stability) while side-stepping the frustrating gridlock of the UN system.

2. The "Enabling" Function for Regional Missions

While not typically involved in the initial kinetic phase of interventions in places like Africa (which are often French or UK-led), NATO's enabling role is used to provide long-term stability and legitimacy.

• Capacity Building and Training: NATO conducts non-combat, advisory missions, such as the NATO Mission Iraq (NMI), or provides training and capacity-building support to African Union (AU) forces. European elites champion these initiatives as a legitimate, multilateral, and non-imperial way to address the root causes of instability (terrorism, state collapse) that drive European security concerns (e.g., migration, terrorism). This use of NATO legitimizes the continuation of a European security interest in the regions without necessitating direct combat deployments, which are far more politically toxic.

• "Flag-swapping": European nations may launch an intervention under an ad-hoc coalition or a UN mandate, but they then rely on "Berlin Plus" agreements to access NATO planning, assets, and logistics. By drawing on NATO's command structures, even for non-NATO missions (like an EU-led operation), European elites leverage the Alliance's credibility and professionalism to legitimize their own force generation and mission longevity.

The Politics of Shared Responsibility

Ultimately, European elites leverage NATO's structure to achieve a powerful political alchemy: they transform what are fundamentally European national security interests (stability in the Balkans, counter-terrorism/migration control in the Middle East/Africa) into transatlantic collective security obligations.

By operating under the NATO flag, European governments effectively gain:

1. Domestic De-Risking: By sharing political and financial responsibility with multiple democratic allies.

2. International Credibility: By operating under a major, established security pact, even when bypassing the UN.

3. Military Efficacy: By plugging into the U.S.-backed command and high-end logistical assets that make distant, complex interventions logistically feasible.

NATO, therefore, is not just a defensive military alliance; it is the primary political-legal mechanism that allows European powers to legitimately exert influence and conduct security operations beyond their borders.