Touching down in Nuuk, ground zero for the world’s most absurd crisis
An improbable diplomatic situation has turned Greenland into the world’s most unlikely flashpoint. Monocle is in Nuuk to see what’s really happening on the ground.
A team from Monocle arrived in Nuuk on the Air Greenland service from Copenhagen on Monday morning. On the basis of our first few hours here, there are no untoward signs of panic (though people might be panicking indoors, where it’s warmer). We’ll be here all week and broadcasting live on Monocle Radio’s daily news shows, The Globalist, The Briefing and The Daily. Listen to Monocle Radio live here. Monocle’s journalists will be speaking to the people who find themselves at the heart of what is possibly the most absurd diplomatic crisis of the postwar era.
My colleague and Monocle’s foreign editor, Alexis Self, tells me, “I don’t think that this will come to the worst-case scenario, which is obviously military conflict between the US and its European Nato allies. But the mood has changed from stunned European sentiment yesterday to a really bullish tone today. Donald Trump makes a lot of noise about the US and Europe but I want to hear from Greenlanders about what they think about all this.”
“London and Paris – and even places that are closer to Trump, such as Rome – are saying that this is wrong. After a year of being pushed around and a year into Trump’s second term, this could be a galvanising moment for Europe.”
However this pans out, it is important not to lose sight of how unnecessary all of this is. Trump’s rationale for his designs upon Greenland is security – specifically, his fear that Greenland is insufficiently secured from Russia or China. The president has scoffed more than once that Denmark’s military commitment to Greenland consists of “two dog sleds”. Leaving aside the fact that those dog sleds are ridden by an elite special forces unit – the Royal Danish Navy’s Sirius Patrol – this is simply incorrect.
Greenland, as part of the Kingdom of Denmark, is protected by Article 5 of the Nato treaty. Under current arrangements, Greenland is every bit as defended as Warsaw, Paris, London or Mar-a-Lago. Russia and China might well, in idle moments, wistfully ponder Greenland’s geographic position and geological resources. But, for the past 80-odd years, those have been unavailable to them, precisely because of the security guarantee that Trump is presently jeopardising.
When attempting to divine what animates the bees in the presidential bonnet, it is crucial not to overthink things. Within the past 24 hours, Trump has informed Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, that this is pretty much all about the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award its 2025 Peace Prize to some less deserving candidate. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace,” he wrote in a letter.
Norway’s government doesn’t award the Nobel Peace Prize, Greenland is not part of Norway and Trump hasn’t stopped eight wars. But in a world ordered by facts, logic and basic common sense, Nuuk wouldn’t become the most important dateline on Earth.
Why do global powers want Greenland?
Location
This makes more sense if you look at the globe from the top down. Greenland is a bulwark and, as its ice melts, an increasingly important shipping route.
Minerals
Greenland’s mineral wealth, though considerable, is presently more theoretical than practical: getting at what’s there might not be worth the hassle and expense. This might also change if more of the island thaws.
Space
The one remaining US facility on Greenland, at Pituffik, is actually a Space Force base: it boasts not only space surveillance equipment but also missile-warning sensors.
