That is how President Donald Trump described an agreement the United States, Denmark and Greenland signed on Sept. 22. He says it will guarantee America’s “permanent control over security” of the Danish territory.

In reality, the deal largely restates defense arrangements already in place. Its modest gains could have been secured through respectful diplomacy with an ally rather than coercion better suited to an adversary – and without damaging NATO cohesion just as Russian aggression is intensifying.

Why Washington has guarded Greenland since 1951

Greenland has long been central to transatlantic security. That is why the United States and Denmark agreed in 1951 to permit Washington to retain troops on the island and take steps to defend it.

More than three times the size of Texas, the island sits at a strategic crossroads between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans and between Canada and Europe. It dominates the western edge of the GIUK Gap, the waters between Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom.

American military planners have long worried that Russian submarines and strategic bombers could use the waterways and air routes in this region to attack vessels in the North Atlantic and target the U.S. homeland.

U.S. military assets in Greenland play an important........

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