The Trump administration is delivering exactly what America needs: a no-nonsense reset of NATO that puts the interests of the United States first and forces Europe to grow up. Elbridge Colby, U.S. Under Secretary of War for Policy and a no-nonsense realist, presented a restructuring of the military alliance at a meeting in Brussels under the banner of NATO 3.0.
Colby nailed it: Europe must take primary responsibility for its own conventional defense. The U.S. will keep the nuclear umbrella extended and provide top-tier capabilities where it counts, but Washington is done being the default conventional heavyweight in Europe. This isn’t abandonment—it’s a partnership rooted in realism. As Colby put it, alliances should be “partnerships, not dependencies.” President Trump’s late-2025 National Security Strategy backs this up, assigning Europe the job of handling its own defenses while pursuing diplomatic outreach—like negotiating an end to the Ukraine mess. The U.S. shifts focus to homeland security, the Western Hemisphere (Monroe Doctrine revival), and countering China in the Indo-Pacific.
When the deputy secretary speaks of defending “American interests in the Western Hemisphere,” he is referring to both Greenland and Iceland. While Iceland’s Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir imagines that a “defense agreement with the EU” is an option for Iceland in security and defense matters, there are two reasons—two crushing realities—why there will be no military buildup by EU-Europe in Greenland and Iceland. First, the EU can’t deliver. It is militarily lightweight and financially strained—incapable of serious High North buildup without massive U.S. subsidies it won’t get anymore. Second, and decisively, Washington won’t allow it. The U.S. views the Western Hemisphere (including Greenland and adjacent Arctic zones) as core turf.