The news that NATO will gradually shift two Joint Force Commands from the United States of America to European leadership is not getting all the attention it deserves. The decision reportedly follows US President Donald Trump’s renewed pressure on allies to shoulder more of Europe’s own defense burden, with NATO presenting the move as part of a “fairer sharing of responsibility” within the alliance.

In this context, Italy will take over Joint Force Command Naples, while Germany and Poland will rotate leadership of Brunssum, and the United Kingdom will assume command of Joint Force Command Norfolk in Virginia. This means that, once the transition is complete, all three of NATO’s crisis-level operational commands will be under European control. Washington, for now, retains the post of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), still held by an American general.

This shift, for one thing, is more than bureaucratic housekeeping. It comes alongside the Trump administration’s National Defense Strategy, which bluntly emphasizes that NATO allies must take primary responsibility for Europe’s defense as the US pivots toward homeland defense, neo-Monroeism and China deterrence. There have been other signs: in a symbolic enough development, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth even skipped his first NATO defense ministerial, while Elbridge Colby, the strategy’s lead author, attended instead.

This trend was reinforced days later in Munich, where NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte spoke of a “real shift in mindset” among........

© Blitz