How Trump's designs on Greenland are testing the U.S.-Denmark alliance
This past week Greenland was big in the news. Of course, Greenland has always been big. Three times the size of Texas, the world's largest island dominates the arctic space between North America and Europe. Its name notwithstanding, 80 percent of Greenland is covered in ice.
The name Greenland came about as a case of branding, according to Robert Christian Thomsen, a professor of social sciences at Aalborg University in Denmark. Greenland got its name, he says, from Erik the Red, a Viking who came from Iceland and settled there around 985 A.D. Upon returning to Iceland, "He told the old Norse that lived there, 'There's a magnificent green land to the west of here. You should go, you should come and join us,'" Thomsen said.
In 1814, Greenland officially became part of the Kingdom of Denmark. So, why all the attention to this mostly desolate landscape?
First, there's security: "If you look at a map, you'll see that the shortest distance for a missile to travel between Moscow and Washington is immediately over the North Pole and Greenland," Thomsen said.
And climate change has made Greenland even more coveted – more navigable for commercial and military vessels, and easier for mining its rich resources.
"The receding ice means that there's much more, much better access to oil, to gas, to minerals, including the rare earth elements that are needed for our computers, for our electric cars, for batteries," Thomsen said.
American interest in Greenland isn't new. During the 19th century, around the time we bought Alaska from Russia, the U.S. expressed interest in acquiring Greenland. Nothing materialized.
But in 1917 the U.S. did buy territory from Denmark: the three islands in the Caribbean that are today's U.S. Virgin Islands. In return, the United States recognized Danish sovereignty over Greenland.
Then came World War II.
Thomsen said the island was tremendously important to the Allies during the war: "Denmark is already occupied by the Germans. And so, Greenland is sort of floating out there unprotected. The American administration said, 'We need to occupy Greenland to make sure that the Germans do not do it.'"
The Allies used the island as a refueling hub for military bombers. After the war, in 1951, the U.S. and Denmark agreed to a more permanent arrangement which, Thomsen said, states that "The U.S. pretty much has free access [to Greenland]. It can do whatever it wants in terms of establishing military bases, radar, you name it. The U.S. just has to ask politely."
But enough about its location and resources. Greenland of course also has people – a tiny population of about 57,000.
Tillie Martinussen, a native Greenlander and former member of parliament, said growing up in Greenland was wonderful: "I mean, it's a very, very safe country to grow up in. We're frolicking about in the snow."
Martinussen, like almost 90% of the population, is of Inuit descent. Asked what Greenlandic values are, she replied, "They are we have to take care of each other. We have to stand together. Very much community-driven, as opposed to most of the Western countries, which are a lot individually-driven. We live in a society where only two generations ago we're used to people going out hunting to get their food, and we are used to sharing. It's kind of still a state of mind."
While polls show most Greenlanders don't want to be American, Martinussen says it's nothing personal: "I actually love the United States; I love the American people," she said. "Don't get me wrong at all. I mean, one of my dreams was actually going from east to west there in a car."
But after President Trump's aggressive rhetoric on Greenland and longtime ally Denmark ["One way or the other, we're gonna have Greenland"], that love is being sorely tested.
Martinussen said, "We have been good allies for 80 years, which makes this treachery feeling so strong in us right now. Children that we have now are going to grow up and being afraid of the United States as the aggressor that we remember."
Thomsen said, "There is a sense, I think, of betrayal. I grew up with – and most Danes I think grew up with – the notion that the U.S. is our best friend in the world, you know? So to, all of a sudden, realize that the bad guy, the one who wants to take something away from us and to hurt this state and these people, is not the Russians, is not China, but our best friend."
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Story produced by Amol Mhatre. Editor: Emanuele Secci.
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