Greenland Is Probably Next, and It Could End NATO

People are getting nervous in Greenland and Denmark. The White House has been ramping up talk of making the resource-rich Arctic island an American territory. One indisputably beneficial outcome, should the words of the Danish prime minister prove true, is that American annexation would mark the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

“We need Greenland!” President Trump told a gaggle of reporters not too long after the United States attacked Venezuela and nabbed its communist dictator, Nicolás Maduro. “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security.”

Standing on Trump’s right side was Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who was beaming. Nothing causes Graham to salivate more than the idea of America going abroad and using military force.  

Nobody Will Fight Over Greenland

White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser Stephen Miller’s conversation with CNN’s Jake Tapper did nothing to quell rumors that Greenland is America’s next conquest. “Greenland should be part of the United States. The president has been very clear about that,” Miller said. Tapper asked if military action against Greenland was off the table. Miller dismissed the premise of the question. There’s nobody in Greenland to mount military resistance, he essentially said. He went a step further: “Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”

Before their discussion, Miller’s wife, who used to work in the White House, posted on X a picture of Greenland covered with an American flag with the caption, “SOON.”

During his talk with CNN, Miller pointed out that Trump was coveting Greenland going back all the way back to his first term. He’s right. But the United States has had its eye on that large piece of tundra for much longer. More on that later.

“Not for Sale”

Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, responded to threats of annexation in a social media post, saying, “our country is not for sale and our future is not determined by social media posts.” Unfortunately for Nielsen and the majority of Greenlanders who don’t want to be part of America, their desires are not part of the equation. They’re caught in the middle of a tug of war between global powers.

The Danes, who own Greenland, are taking the White House seriously, as they should. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “if the US chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War.”

NATO should have been dissolved a long time ago. It’s a major reason for the war in Ukraine, and it was intended from the beginning to serve as the military muscle of the emerging New World Order. If the alliance comes undone over Greenland, the world will be better for it.

Securing the Arctic

Miller, however, used NATO security to justify American annexation. He told Tapper:

The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States. That’s a conversation that we’re going to have as a country, that’s a process that we’re going to have as a community of nations.

Greenland’s national security value was known long before the United States built up China into its primary threat. General H.H. “Hap” Arnold once said, “If there is a third world war, its strategic center will be the north pole.”

In 1941, America made a pact with Denmark that rendered it responsible for Greenland’s defense during World War II. This gave the U.S. military permission to build facilities to land its planes. The Pentagon saw Greenland as the world’s largest aircraft carrier. The military used the island as a refueling stop for bombing runs into Europe. Top officials in the Harry Truman administration so appreciated the strategic asset the island proved to be during the war that they offered Denmark $100 million in gold for it, but to no avail.

In 1951, the United States signed a new treaty with Denmark that provided wider military latitude to use Greenland as a base of Arctic operations. The U.S. military built the massive Thule Air Base (now Pituffick Space Base) on the northwest coast of the island. Its construction has been compared to that of the Panama Canal because of its complexity. 

Legal Framework

Matthew Shoemaker, a former intelligence officer with the Navy and the Defense Intelligence Agency, who served on the Russia desk as part of European Command and the NATO Intelligence Fusion Centre, said Trump’s desire for Greenland is based on the legal framework established by the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement. “This agreement empowers the U.S. to significantly influence and potentially control this strategically vital territory, making a compelling case for action that Congress and diplomats cannot ignore,” Shoemaker wrote. The 1951 agreement gave the United States significant rights and responsibilities within Greenland. “The agreement’s provisions grant significant authority for increased American control when national security is invoked,” Shoemaker added. The pact gives the United States broad access rights within Greenland, including the use of air, land, and sea spaces near defense areas.

Greenland hosted more than 10,000 American troops during the Cold War. Today, only about 200 active-duty U.S. Air Force and Space Force personnel get to enjoy the frosty weather there. Those troops operate a ballistic missile early-warning system.

Arctic Trade Route

Greenland’s value has increased significantly over the last few decades. As Shoemaker pointed out, “a warming Arctic is opening new shipping routes and exposing vast mineral resources, attracting the attention of global powers like China and Russia. In this context, the provisions of the 1951 agreement take on renewed significance.”

Alexander Gray, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former chief of staff of the National Security Council under Trump, seconds Shoemaker’s sentiment. He penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Why Trump Really Should ‘Buy’ Greenland.” Among his points:

If [Greenland] separates from Denmark, it would be responsible for its own security, a task it is ill-equipped to handle. This is a grave concern given the second important development: Russia and China are threatening the status quo in the Arctic. Moscow has claimed significant chunks of the Arctic Sea, including inside Greenland’s Exclusive Economic Zone…. China has declared itself a “near-Arctic state,” [and] established a shipping network called the “Polar Silk Road” to bind Arctic communities closer to Beijing’s economic and political agenda.… Western security and economic interests would be threatened if an independent Greenland surrounded by predatory foreign actors lacked outside protection. Mr. Trump has the chance to negotiate the deal of the century.

Minerals

Another national security component to Greenland concerns its vast natural resources. Greenland is filled with oil, natural gas, and a long list of mineral resources including rare earth metals, graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, diamonds, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, and uranium. 

The world’s superpowers see access to rare earth minerals as a must. These resources are critical to high-tech products, including smartphones, computer hard drives, electric and hybrid vehicle parts, and flat screen TVs and monitors. They’re used in medicine and energy storage as well. But, more importantly, these minerals are also crucial for national defense. They are used to make electronic displays, guidance systems, lasers, and radar and sonar systems.

Will It Happen?

The United States has had its eye on Greenland for more than a century. Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state, William Seward, who spearheaded the purchase of Alaska, tried to buy Greenland, as did Howard Taft’s U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Maurice Egan in 1910. Taft’s administration proposed a three-way trade that would have made Greenland a U.S. territory. The proposal was this: Denmark would cede Greenland to the United States, and in exchange the United States would give Denmark a group of islands in the Philippines, after which Denmark would turn around and give those islands to Germany in exchange for the Schleswig-Holstein territory Denmark had recently lost. But nothing came of that.

If it obtains Greenland, whether by agreement or force, the Trump administration will have accomplished what every other administration that has tried has failed to do. Furthermore, it will push the Chinese and Russians back out of the Western Hemisphere. Unfortunately, there’s no sign that the United States has any interest in pulling back its presence from the Eastern Hemisphere.