Although it may seem like a newly emerging
topic, Greenland’s glacial landscape has been entering and exiting U.S.
politics for eight decades. President Trump has stated that his country needs
the island for national security reasons. But there are other possible
interests.
President Trump’s boasts at the beginning of
his second term have placed the world’s largest island in direct conflict with
the most powerful nation on Earth. Although it’s not the first time they’ve
attempted to acquire ownership of this giant Arctic landmass, Trump’s desire to
incorporate it into the United States has caused a significant impact among its
57,000 endogamous inhabitants.
In 1946, under President Truman, the United
States, which wanted to control Greenland to strengthen international security
against its Russian nuclear enemies, made a $1 billion purchase offer to
Denmark, which had ruled the island since 1814.
The U.S. presence, which began during World War
II near Thule, in the northwest corner of Greenland, has continued there ever
since. As part of a secret plan to hide nuclear weapons from the Soviets, in
the 1950s, during the Cold War, the U.S. military launched Project Iceworm.
Military engineers built a multi-story
underground base near Thule, calling it Camp Century. It didn’t last long. Snow
and ice began to slowly crush the buildings above the tunnels, forcing the
military to abandon it in 1966.
During its short life, scientists were able todrill into the ice core and begin analyzing Greenland's climate history. The
U.S. weather station Bluie West Six, built during the war, was located just a
few kilometers from the indigenous settlement of Pituffik. Immediately after
the war, as part of Operation Nanook, the Americans expanded the existing
facility with a gravel runway as part of an upgrade to a larger, new weather
station. This is how the Pituffik Missile Base was born, an essential piece for
carrying out the polar strategy and establishing U.S. military supremacy in the
Arctic.
As the historical record points out, both
Denmark and the United States owe much to the ancient Icelandic Vikings, who,
under Erik the Red, were the first to inhabit Greenland in the 11th century.
The legendary Icelandic sagas provide a detailed (and to some extent
historically accurate) account of life in Greenland during the Viking
domination period, which has written testimonies from the 13th century that
show how natural forces have long shaped human interaction with the region.
Unlike those medieval Vikings who, overwhelmed
by the climate, abandoned their first attempts to colonize the island, the
Greenland Inuit resisted. The Inuit arrived in Greenland around the year 1200
AD, forming part of a more recent culture that replaced the Paleo-Eskimo
peoples who had previously inhabited Greenland, such as the Saqqaq and Dorset.
The Inuit ("Eskimos" in old terms) originally came from Siberia and
crossed what is now known as the Bering Strait, later expanding eastward to reach
Alaska, Canada, and eventually Greenland.
The arrival of the Inuit in Greenland marked a
significant change in the history of human settlement on the island, as they
brought new hunting technologies and adaptations to the extremely cold climate.
Today, they face a warmer climate than they ever could have imagined.
At Summit, a research station located near the
highest point of the ice sheet center, temperatures increased six times faster
than the global average between 1982 and 2011. For the first time in nearly 130
years, in July 2012, 97% of the surface melted for several days. The ice sheet
has thinned and darkened since the early 1990s, especially at its edges,
causing an increase in the number of icebergs breaking off from glaciers near
the sea while more glacial earthquakes occur.
This behavior predicts a grim future because,
as shown in the following video, it could potentially disrupt ocean circulation
as more and more freshwater flows from the melting glaciers.
As Greenland’s temperatures rise, so does the
internal political thermometer, as some of the island’s politicians are calling
for full independence from the Danish crown. Although Denmark contributes
two-thirds of Greenland’s budget, both Greenlanders and foreign observers are
aware of the opportunities that a melting island surrounded by increasingly
warmer waters offers for future naval transportation routes, not to mention the
extraction of gas and rare minerals that will become more accessible as the permafrost
fades away.
Although the Greenland government banned anyattempts to extract oil and gas in 2021, arguing that "the price was too
high" in terms of environmental impacts, the greed for these resources is
growing.
As expected, the ambitions of the Trump
administration have put the White House in direct conflict with Greenland and
Denmark. In a 1944 article for Foreign Affairs, Hans W. Weigert wrote: “The
awareness that the far north is an area of great strategic importance to the
United States is no longer limited to a small group of people... [..]. The
strategy of this war has accelerated the pace of progress in the Arctic, but
there are certain barriers that nature has raised against the development of
this area; and political realities set limits on the possibilities of an
American advance northward.”
That argument, written in the context of World
War II and shortly after Iceland declared its independence from Denmark (while
Denmark was still occupied by Nazi Germany), remains relevant today.
In his famous "Day of Infamy" speech
to Congress in 1941, President Roosevelt spoke of the need to prevent
"Germany's occupation of strategic outposts in the Arctic for a possible
attack against the Western Hemisphere." Roosevelt also described the
obligation of a future withdrawal from the region: “Immediately after the
termination of the 'current international emergency,' all U.S. forces will be
withdrawn from Iceland.”
President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his "Day of Infamy" speech before
Congress on December 8, 1941. Behind him are Vice President Henry Wallace
(left) and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. To the right, in uniform, is
Roosevelt’s son, James, who escorted his father to the Capitol.
However, Roosevelt also stated that the Pact on the defense of Greenland to be signed between the United States and Denmark
would open the door for negotiations on the future of the island, specifying
that the pact “will remain in effect until it is agreed that the current
dangers to the peace and security of the American continent have passed. At
that time, the modification or termination of the agreement will be subject to
consultation between the governments of the United States and Denmark.”
Eighty-four years later, the new Trump administration’s sense is that these “current dangers” still exist. What are the chances this time of reaching a negotiated and peaceful agreement between the United States, Denmark, and the world’s largest island?