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The root servers hold the real power, and IIRC over 50% are operated in the US, with many of them being operated by the US military and others educational institutions.

I can only assume that the US has tolerated varied use of ccTLDs for the sole purpose of avoiding a competing alternate DNS root zone becoming more prominent.

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I’m sure the NSA does their best to make sure the US doesn’t politically fuck that up

But root servers aren't a democracy, are they? If US root servers went bonkers, people would just use different root servers. Doesn't matter whether it's 50% or 90% that are in US if they can be ignored?

Yeah that's the point. If US acted up, and pressured other operators to follow suit, the root zone could split up. They don't want that to happen.

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