THE Europeans have had a dispiriting week. In the snowy landscape of Davos, leaders of the major European nations had to have a huddle about US President Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric on taking over Greenland. There were righteous speeches and statements by them about how such a takeover would be the end of the rules-based international order. Canada, which Trump had also threatened with a takeover, got into the game, too, with Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying the rupture in North Atlantic relations and the imminence of a world where force eliminates respect for sovereignty.

It was oddly gratifying to see the world’s political and economic elite, mostly white men and some white women, having to consider how devastating attacks on sovereignty can be and how a superpower gone rogue is a global threat. The rest of the world saw this face of the US post 9/11, in the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, both under the label of ‘protecting US national security’. At that time, Europe joined forces with the US. So, why is Denmark suddenly so bothered with the details of sovereignty, especially given its part in the US-led Nato effort in Afghanistan? Nor did the US care when Barack Obama ordered unmanned aerial bombings of places........

© Dawn