To put this in the perspective of the Miami Valley, the City of Kettering alone has ~57,000 residents. In Greene County, the City of Beavercreek (~47,000 people) when combined with Beavercreek Twp. (~10,000 people) also roughly equates to the number of residents living in Greenland.
While the population of Greenland is comparatively small, the island is in the news because it possesses vast quantities of rare earth and other minerals, plentiful fishing resources, and possible large-scale deposits of oil and gas.
Greenland is also very strategically located; in terms of naval defense, being part of the GIUK passage – a key maritime strait between Europe and North America. Imagine a line running from Greenland to Iceland to the United Kingdom (GIUK) that can intercept Russian vessels.
Global transactions
In recent months, the Trump administration has made numerous overtures towards Greenland, applying varying degrees of pressure to obtain the land through purchase.
To Trump’s critics, the idea of obtaining Greenland is one of 19th century-style imperialism. And, with involvement in Venezuela following the arrest of the dictator, Nicolás Maduro, the United States risks overextending itself militarily, especially with other major issues in places like Iran.
In context, Trump’s musings over Greenland are not new in the history of U.S. foreign policy. In the 1860s, Secretary of State William Seward, amid the purchase of Alaska, also sought to buy Greenland. In the aftermath of World War II, President Truman likewise made overtures toward Denmark about purchasing the North Atlantic territory.
With the rise of China, and a resurgent Russia, the world in which Greenland operates is changing. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and belligerence towards other neighbors shows a willingness to expand. While China has not engaged in violent war, Beijing has built a network of outposts along its Belt and Road route, some of which they directly controlled.
It is not unfathomable, then, that China and/or Russia will seek to gain territory and/or resources from Greenland in the future. Moreover, for many years in the aftermath of the Cold War, Denmark’s government failed to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on the military, as expected under their commitment to NATO. Copenhagen’s spendthrift ways are changing, though, and alongside other northern European allies, more regular patrols of Greenland are now in place.
President Trump is between a rock and a hard place
Greenland’s situation is somewhat unique in world affairs: a) because it belongs to a smaller power, Denmark, which itself has a population of just six million people, and b) because Greenland has gained greater autonomy such that virtually all domestic policy is in the hands of the Greenlandic Parliament (while foreign policy is controlled by the Danish government in exchange for annual subsidies). Advancements towards greater home rule in 1979 and 2008 have provided Greenlanders with immense sovereignty.
For President Trump, there are both risks for action and inaction. On the one hand, Denmark alone is ill equipped to seriously protect Greenland from Russia. There are related national security dangers if China negotiates access to Greenland’s resources. Yet, on the other hand, if President Trump acts to obtain Greenland – whether by force or negotiation – he risks conflict with longstanding allies because several, much larger European partners have recently rallied to Denmark’s defense. These tradeoffs must be assessed carefully because the United States’ standing in the world changes if any definitive move is made.
Glen Duerr is professor of International Studies at Cedarville University and a City Councilman in Beavercreek.