On 1 October 2026, Speaking exclusively at the Euronews Defence and Space Summit, the US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker said Washington was still conducting a review of the deployment and basing of US forces across NATO territory. Whitaker said the process was being guided by the Trump administration’s “America First” approach. “America First means that we look at it from what’s in the interest of the United States of America and its people and its taxpayers,” he said. This comes amid growing questions regarding the future of America's military presence on the continent and its relationship with its European allies.

Looking back at the history of this relationship, America decided after World War II to emerge from its isolation—a period during which it had confined its colonialist activities to the New World—and enter the Old World, which had been under the control of colonialist Europe. Europe had suffered immense destruction in the war as a consequence of its own wicked deeds. America sought to impose its hegemony over Europe and the Old World, coveting the wealth that Europe had been plundering, and to prevent the Soviet Union from gaining control over it.

It established NATO, set up military bases, and deployed around 80,000 soldiers in Europe; it launched the Marshall Plan to control its economy; and it introduced its companies to ensure economic and political domination over it.

The Soviet Union collapsed and its threat to Europe vanished, yet America maintained its hegemony over it and did not dismantle the NATO alliance it leads. Europe began working to rid itself of this hegemony; it established a union, but this union did not evolve into a single political force with a military power to protect it and execute its policies. Although it laid the foundation for a European army, it was unable to develop it. Europe also began moving closer to Russia to bolster its economy and political stance in confronting America.

To strike at this, America decided to ignite a war between them. It provoked Ukraine to antagonize Russia, which in turn invaded Ukraine in 2022. Thus, America managed to deal a severe blow to Europe from which it has not yet recovered. And to exhaust it, keep it dependent, and maintain its hegemony over it, America decided to have Europe resist Russia alone, adopting the slogan “America First.” This is why the following was stated in its National Security Strategy, issued on 5 December 2025, concerning Europe:

The priorities of the U.S. strategy toward Europe are as follows:

- Enabling Europe to rely on itself

- Bearing primary responsibility for its own defense

- Achieving strategic stability with Russia

- Ending the notion of NATO as an alliance capable of limitless expansion

- Opening European markets to American goods and services and ensuring fair treatment for American workers and companies.

- American diplomacy must continue to defend true democracy and freedom of expression in Europe, because European countries cannot reform themselves, are mired in a political crisis, and the rise of national parties has become a valid cause for concern.

These points confirm America’s objectives toward Europe. In the final point, it confirms its desire to maintain its hegemony over it under the guise of reforming it and defending democracy within it. It also confirms its support for racist nationalist parties, which are dictatorial, because it wants to destabilize the internal situations within European countries and topple the European Union and its currency, the Euro. This is to be achieved without the need for a large presence of American troops, in order to reduce its expenditures. Reports indicate that it intends to withdraw 40,000 soldiers from Europe.

After this severe blow that Europe received, it has begun to review its relationship with America and to gather its strength in order to rebuild itself militarily without relying on America. This is why it produced the “White Paper for European Defence – Readiness 2030” in March 2025 and allocated 800 billion euros to strengthen the European defense infrastructure. Germany, the leading economic power in the Union and one of its main pillars, announced a security strategy in July 2023 and another military strategy in April 2026, which stipulates making the German army “the strongest conventional army in Europe” by 2039. It has begun encouraging civilian industrial companies to undertake arms manufacturing, agreed with France to make the French nuclear force a European nuclear force, and established a permanent military base in the Baltic states to confront Russia, which covets seizing them because they encircle Russian Kaliningrad.

At the same time, America is playing its game with Russia. In addition to distancing it from Europe by igniting the war in Ukraine, it imposes harsh sanctions on it to subjugate it to its whims, as it seeks to seize its oil resources that Europe had been benefiting from. This is why its president, Trump, announced on Truth Social on 9 October 2026 that “I have just concluded a highly successful discussion with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, wherein it was agreed that Russia will immediately supply over 300,000 Tons of Diesel Fuel to the American and Global Marketplace.” By “global,” Europe is specifically meant, where diesel prices have doubled, just as they have in America, due to its aggression against Iran. It appears that America will buy Russian diesel and sell it to Europe and others to reap huge profits. It is not unlikely in the future that it will buy Russian gas to sell it to Europe, and so on. It has violated the sanctions it imposed on Russia while preventing Europe from violating them. America does not care about its European allies; it forces them to go along with imposing sanctions on Russia and prevents them from importing from it, only to then import from Russia itself! It cares only for its own interests and hegemony, especially under the “America First” doctrine. It recognizes neither friend nor foe in pursuit of this.

The problem lies more within Europe itself, which has leaned on American aid and military protection under the name of NATO—tools that are merely instruments of American hegemony over it. Consequently, its countries and peoples turned toward the economy and welfare, neglecting the political and military spheres. It no longer produces strong politicians and has been unable to build an army from its own sons. Its system of governance prevents the emergence of strong rule, as it relies on forming governments from party coalitions pulled apart by their own self-interests. It has failed to build its unity because nationalism has dug deep trenches that prevent this. Therefore, the union it established among its nations—which refuse to relinquish their national identity and merge into a single political entity—is a fragile union, susceptible to collapse. It has lost much of its global influence and cannot restore it, as it relied on colonialism to plunder the wealth of others—especially in Africa and Asia—and turn them into markets for its goods.

The problem also lies in the failure of the capitalist ideology to fuse its peoples into a single melting pot, as national interest is the foundation, and the ideology is applied accordingly, in addition to it being a false and dangerous ideology for humanity.

We do not lament for Europe, nor do we rejoice in America’s hegemony, for both are evil. We do not wish to replace one evil with another, nor one colonialism with another. Rather, we want our Islamic Ummah to return and assume its rightful place as the best Ummah brought forth for humanity, to save itself and all the peoples of the world from the yoke of colonialism and the injustice of capitalism. This cannot be achieved unless it establishes its Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate) on the Method of the Prophethood.