I said on Monday’s podcast that we all needed to get a bigger imagination, so here we are. Let’s talk about Greenland.
After capturing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife over the weekend, the White House’s focus seems to have turned to the Danish territory of Greenland.
It’s the largest island in the world, roughly the size of Western Europe, with a population of just 56,000. Denmark colonized it in the 18th century and today it’s a semi-autonomous part of the Danish Kingdom.
According to President Trump, we “need” it. Trump advisor Stephen Miller told CNN this week, “obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States.” He went on to say, “nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
Reportedly, Marco Rubio told members of Congress that Trump actually wants to buy Greenland and that this posturing is a negotiation tactic, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement on the subject saying that, “utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”
Democrats have rejected the Greenland idea and many Republicans, in a rare break from Trump, have as well. Among Americans, the idea of acquiring Greenland is 30 to 45 percentage points underwater and 85 percent of Greenlanders also reject it.
For Denmark’s part, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement to “stop the threats” and that, “the U.S. has no right to annex one of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom.” She also said an attack would end NATO.
Denmark has a population of 6 million with about 16,000 active military personnel. The U.S. military, for its part, has 1.3 million active personnel. Denmark is also a longtime U.S. ally. They were one of only four European countries to invade Iraq alongside the U.S.
I wanted to get a perspective on Trump’s threats from inside the Danish national security community, so joining me on today’s episode is Peter Viggo Jakobsen, professor in the Department of Strategy and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defense College in Copenhagen.
Below is an excerpt from our conversation:
Galen Druke: I, like many Americans with a Netflix account, watched Borgen, which is a Danish political drama. And in the final season of Borgen, Russia invades Greenland. Given the conversation we’re having, which is a bigger threat for Denmark today, Russia or the United States?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: The United States by far. In the sense that even if they do not take Greenland, if they terminate the NATO alliance, we are at home alone and we have very, very little time to get organized to prevent the Russians from attacking us again.
So in a sense, Trump is amplifying the Russian threat. If the Americans stay engaged within NATO, Russia is not really a military problem, but if the U.S. were to withdraw from the alliance and also do this stuff in Greenland, then of course the U.S. is the main concern and the major threat.
It’s really weird for someone to say who’s been working with the U.S. military since the 90s. I’ve been to Afghanistan with U.S. forces. I’ve attended MIT. So in that sense, my entire professional life has been formed in close cooperation and association with the U.S. So it’s really strange having to sit here now on this podcast and say that, yes, the U.S. is actually a greater threat to the kingdom, but also European security than Russia currently is. And a year ago, I would not have imagined that I would ever say that.
