How Trump

This past week Greenland featured prominently 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. Despite its name, 80 percent of Greenland is covered in ice.

The name Greenland emerged as a branding case, according to Robert Christian Thomsen, a professor of social sciences at Aalborg University in Denmark. Greenland owes its name, it says, to Erik the Red, a Viking who came from Iceland and settled there around 985 AD. Returning to Iceland, “he said to the ancient Norsemen who lived there, ‘There is a magnificent green land 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 so much attention to this largely desolate landscape?

First, there’s safety: “If you look at a map, you’ll see that the shortest distance a missile can 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 ships, and easier to extract its rich resources.

“The receding ice means there is much more and much better access to oil, gas and minerals, including the rare earth elements needed for our computers, our electric cars and batteries,” Thomsen said.

American interest in Greenland is not new. During the 19th century, when we purchased Alaska from Russia, the United States expressed interest in acquiring Greenland. Nothing materialized.

But in 1917 the U.S. did buy territory from Denmark: the three Caribbean islands that are today US Virgin Islands. In exchange, 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 kind of floating there unprotected. The American administration said, ‘We need to occupy Greenland to make sure the Germans don’t do it.'”

The Allies used the island as a refueling center for military bombers. After the war, in 1951, the United States and Denmark agreed to a more permanent agreement which, according to Thomsen, states that “the United States practically has free access [to Greenland]. You can do whatever you want in terms of setting up military bases, radars, whatever. America just has to ask politely.”

But enough about its location and resources. Of course, Greenland has people too: a small population of about 57,000 people.

Tillie Martinussen, a Greenland native 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 in the snow.”

Martinussen, like almost 90% of the population, is of Inuit descent. When asked what Greenlandic values ​​are, he responded: “We have to look out for each other. We have to stick together. They are very community-driven, unlike most Western countries, which are largely individual-driven. We live in a society where just two generations ago we were used to people going out hunting for food, and we’re used to sharing. It’s still a state of mind.”

While polls show that most Greenlanders don’t want to be Americans, Martinussen says it’s nothing personal: “I actually love America; I love the American people,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong at all. I mean, one of my dreams was actually to go from east to west in a car.”

But after President Trump’s aggressive rhetoric against Greenland and his former ally Denmark, [“One way or the other, we’re gonna have Greenland”]that love is being severely tested.

Martinussen said: “We have been good allies for 80 years, which makes this betrayal feel so strongly to us right now. The children we have now are going to grow up and be afraid of the United States as the aggressor we remember.”

Thomsen said: “I think there is a sense of betrayal. I grew up with (and I think most Danes grew up with) the notion that the United States is our best friend in the world, you know? So, suddenly, realizing that the bad guy, the one who wants to take something from us and harm this state and these people, is not the Russians, is not China, but is our best friend.”

For more information:

• Robert Christian Thomsen, Aalborg University

Story produced by Amol Mhatre. Editing: Emanuele Secci.

See also:

• In Davos, Trump’s Greenland agenda causes a “rupture” in relations with US allies (“Sunday Morning”)