The Greenland Gambit

Trump's Greenland moves test NATO and European security, challenging the postwar world order and alliances.

- Wajahat Qazi

Post the “invasion” of Venezuela and the whisking away of its President, Nicolas Maduro, US President Donald Trump and his team have upped the ante on Denmark.

The issue in contention is Greenland, either its sale or takeover by the United States.

It needs to be said here that Greenland was colonized by Denmark about 300 years ago. It now enjoys a semi-autonomous status within “the happiest country in the world”.

After US officials raised the stakes, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen, who has gained a reputation for sobriety, has said, “If the US invades Greenland, that would be the end of NATO.”

Obiter dictum, this remark appears to be an angry, reflexive cri de cœur of helplessness, more than anything else.

Let's consider it at face value and tease out its implications.

NATO, a Western alliance dating back to the post-World War and Cold War era of alliances and norms created thereof, is the bedrock of European security. The United States has been and remains the lynchpin of this alliance.

It may not be inaccurate to state that it was because of NATO and the US being part of it that postwar Europe coalesced into the European Union.