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U.S. President Donald Trump’s strident demand that the semi-autonomous island territory of Greenland come under U.S. “ownership” has set off a firestorm of consternation across the Atlantic. Although geographically part of the North American continent, the frozen island nation—more than three times Texas’s size, with 60,000 inhabitants—has been under European control for centuries.

Europe has progressively loosened its control of Greenland over time. And there’s no reason to think that it wouldn’t further loosen that hold to allow the United States to pursue policies of mutual trans-Atlantic interest, including the expansion of mining and the U.S. military presence.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s strident demand that the semi-autonomous island territory of Greenland come under U.S. “ownership” has set off a firestorm of consternation across the Atlantic. Although geographically part of the North American continent, the frozen island nation—more than three times Texas’s size, with 60,000 inhabitants—has been under European control for centuries.

Europe has progressively loosened its control of Greenland over time. And there’s no reason to think that it wouldn’t further loosen that hold to allow the United States to pursue policies of mutual trans-Atlantic interest, including the expansion of mining and the U.S. military presence.

The greatest hurdle to that process might, in fact, be Trump’s own public bullying. Greenland is an ideal project for the trans-Atlantic allies to pursue together, in consultation with native Greenlanders.

Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark (and thus was a member of the European Economic Community from 1973 to 1985), but since 1979, it has existed as an autonomous territory, with its own flag, language, and institutions. The Arctic territory does not have its own currency, constitution, or citizenship, and the judiciary and foreign affairs also remain under Danish control.

Greenland now has self-rule, which includes control of its own natural resources and economic development. Since 2009, the massive, mostly ice-covered block of the Arctic located 2,920 kilometers (1,814 miles) off Denmark has had the power to declare itself independent—pending approval by a Greenlandic referendum and the Danish Parliament.

In the past, Europeans have couched their interests in Greenland as primarily environmental. In its updated Arctic policy published in 2021, the EU underscores its aims to help preserve the Arctic as a region of peaceful cooperation and “to slow the effects of climate change, and to support the sustainable development of Arctic regions to the benefit of Arctic communities, not least Indigenous Peoples, and future generations.” The EU also dug into its pocket for 225 million euros ($236 million) to assist........

© Foreign Policy