This article appears as part of the Unspun: Scottish Politics newsletter.

It makes you pine for the good old days of the Cold War. That wasn’t a typo, I meant ‘good old days’, not ‘bad old days’.

At least during the Cold War, we here in Europe only had to engage in the arcane art known as Kremlinology to interpret what our enemies in Moscow were thinking.

Now, we must master Trumpology to work out what our former ally America is planning. Again, that’s not a typo, I meant ‘former’. To consider America an ally is now absurd.

Canada has made that quite clear. Prime Minister Mark Carney has said explicitly that Canada’s old relationship with America is "over”.

Trump, Carney said, wants “to weaken Canada, to wear us down, to break us so that America can own us”. These are frightening times.

Matters took an even darker turn with comments from Vladimir Putin which seemed to bring American and Russian geopolitical policy close together.

Putin raised Trump’s threat to take over Greenland while in Russia’s Arctic territories. Symbolism matters.

“America’s plans in relation to Greenland are serious,” he said. “These plans have deep historical roots. And it’s clear that the US will continue to systematically pursue its geo-strategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.

“As for Greenland, this is a matter for two specific countries. It has nothing to do with us.”........

© Herald Scotland