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Former U.S. NATO Ambassador Kurt Volker often jokes that, in response to geopolitical threats, “the European default setting is to wait, worry, and complain.”

But that quip doesn’t seem fair when it comes to Europe’s latest tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland. Two weeks of turmoil sparked by Trump’s push to take control of the island “one way or the other” have forced the continent to accept that its most powerful ally can no longer be counted as one. It remains to be seen whether Europe’s fresh sense of urgency will endure—and translate into real strategic autonomy.

Former U.S. NATO Ambassador Kurt Volker often jokes that, in response to geopolitical threats, “the European default setting is to wait, worry, and complain.”

But that quip doesn’t seem fair when it comes to Europe’s latest tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump over Greenland. Two weeks of turmoil sparked by Trump’s push to take control of the island “one way or the other” have forced the continent to accept that its most powerful ally can no longer be counted as one. It remains to be seen whether Europe’s fresh sense of urgency will endure—and translate into real strategic autonomy.

For several weeks this month, Trump refused to rule out a military intervention to seize Greenland—although he said that he would not use force to acquire the territory during an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. Trump, who has been obsessed with the autonomous Danish territory since his first term, insists the United States needs to own it in order to prevent it from falling into Russian or Chinese hands. Most experts agree that there is currently no such risk.

“At first Europeans were astonished, a NATO member wanting to seize the territory of another NATO member seemed unimaginable. But once the astonishment wore down, they reacted well,” said Nathalie Loiseau, a French member of the European Parliament from the centrist Renew group who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

With land controlled by a European Union and NATO member suddenly on the line, major European powers rallied behind Greenland, repeatedly affirming that the territory belongs only to its people. For once, the continent’s leaders didn’t just provide empty words.

First, an intense,........

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