Since these debts are paid back, with interest there is no way it could be interpreted as tribute.

Not true for treasury bonds, they roll them over rather than paying them down. The (likely temporary) special status of the dollar in international trade imposed after WWII also means that it is in high demand outside the US, giving us a special place as the source of dollars which can get extra stuff for them.

Regardless, end result is still more stuff for Americans.

Do you think it relies on its military dominance in order to extract that surplus?

Geopolitical power is quite complex. The US does at various points uses it's power to punish countries that act against US economic interests.

It's very hard to estimate the economic values extracted via wiretapping everything and using that information when it's needed.

In general if you would predict based on economic history that value transfer to the party with the military power is happening and you see that value transfer is happening, it should get you thinking. "Cui bono?" is a good question if you are dealing with intransparent complex systems.

If you don't see where the magician uses his skills, that can just means that the magician is good at his craft. If someone is really powerful you usually don't know how they get their results. Information warfare is a key part of US military thinking.

As far as European countries go Germany is the country with the biggest amount of US military occupation and it's the European country that exports the most. Of course it's just correlation ;)

When it comes to dealing with secret power I found Leoluca Orlando worth reading. As major of Palermo he fought the Mafia with makes him know what he's talking about. He did fought the building of US military bases because missile defense isn't the only thing that you can do with military bases. From that perspective it also makes a lot more sense why Russia has such a problem with Star Wars which probably won't work for it's stated purpose anyway.