Given the US’s propensity to purchase extensive territories from others – think of Manhattan, Alaska, and Louisiana – it should come as no surprise that the US has had its eyes on Greenland, the purchase of which from Denmark for whatever sum – $1 trillion has been mooted – would make the US the second largest country on earth after Russia. And, more importantly, it would offer strategic advantage in the North Atlantic and the Arctic, as well as access to the largest deposits of rare earth minerals outside China, and huge offshore oil and gas fields. What’s not to like from a Trumpian perspective?
The problem is Denmark, fellow NATO member, as well as EU country, which has been explicit in its opposition to such a deal, though there is precedent: in 1917, prompted by the Monroe Doctrine, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies – what is now the US Virgin Islands – which became an unincorporated territory of the United States.
There is a precedent, too, in US involvement – or interference – in Greenland, militarily, scientifically and economically. In 1931, Denmark came into dispute with Norway – who called Greenland ‘Erik the Red’s Land’ – over possession of the island. The Permanent Court of Justice ruled in Denmark’s favour, citing the Treaty of Kiel. The German invasion of Denmark, which took place in April 1940, complicated matters. The US, then still neutral, sent members of the Coast Guard in the guise of ‘volunteers’ to secure the island, applying the Monroe Doctrine to European colonies in the North Atlantic. Once the US declared war on Germany and Japan at the end of 1941, it proceeded to occupy Greenland. Immediately after the war, with Denmark liberated, it offered $1.6 billion for its possession, which was turned down.
The Cold War sustained US interest in Greenland, too close to its mainland to ignore, and central to its North Atlantic strategy in the age of NATO. During Operation Blue Jay in 1953 it built the strategically crucial Thule airbase, and by the end of the century Greenland was central to the operation of NORAD, the North American Air Defense Command, an aerospace collaboration between the US and Canada. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the Cold War, eyes averted from the prize, much to the chagrin of Greenlanders themselves, who had been the beneficiaries of US investment and attention.