Controlling The Arctic

"In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Denmark's claim to sovereignty over Greenland is far stronger than Canada's claim to sovereignty up to the North Pole for the entire archipelago."

"Whether it's enough [$1B in funding over 4 yrs to improve military transportation infrastructure in the Arctic and a partnership with Australia to develop Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar] to offset American desire to own territory in the north? I don't know." 

Former chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson

 

"If they were to acquire Greenland, it would be the first step in eventually acquiring control over all of northern North America."

"It's such a bizarre distortion of the Monroe Doctrine, which was about not allowing non-North American powers to assert and control North America."

"It's telling that the Trump White House has not come back with any specific asks. And that, to me, points to the fact that this is smoke and mirrors and this is about America wanting to grow."

Whitney Lackenbauer, research chair, study of Canadian North, Trent University

 

"The first part that we've always been concerned with is that the Americans would say we're not pulling our weight, and they would go to systems that don't need Canadian territory."

"In other words, cut us out, so that NORAD either becomes hollow or doesn't even become functioning."

Robert Huebert, director, Centre for Military, Security and Strategic studies, University of Calgary 

A new settlement was established near the present-day capital, Nuuk, after Danish colonization in the 18th Century. Reuters

 

A precedent is on the verge of being set, with U.S. President Donald Trump rumbling about taking Greenland from Denmark, and in the consternation over his belligerent assertions that the U.S. will, one way or another achieve that goal, in the process alienating his European allies and risking the dissolution of NATO, while other nations will likely begin to feel the pressure of the president's territorial acquisition aggression.

 

Mette Frederiksen in Paris last week during a bilateral meeting, met the not-unexpected support of Canada's prime minister with Mark Carney stating the position that the future of Greenland should be a matter between Denmark and Greenland with the exclusion of any others. Recent investments by the Carney government under pressure by Trump to meet NATO's minimum GDP investment in military preparedness doesn't equate to Canada being let off the hook of Trump's gimlet eye.

 

The initial investment in developing next-generation military satellite communications for Arctic operations may not insulate Canada to the extent it hopes for, from President Trump's continued gibes about Canada's irrelevance. Canada -- like Greenland, an autonomous territory under the Kingdom of Denmark's protection is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as an island of strategic importance in the Atlantic Ocean -- faces similar challenges from Mr. Trump..

 

 

"One way or another, we will have Greenland", President Trump stated yet again, accelerating his threats in recent weeks to take over the largest island in the world. Ostensibly to prevent Russia and China from attempting to do the same, he cautions. Under the rationale of the imperative to ensure American security interests in the Western Hemisphere a repurposing of the Monroe Doctrine has been cited as the security instrument motivating and legitimizing a Greenland takeover.

 

That Denmark's Frederiksen vehemently opposes the proposed encroachment by the U.S., spurning its sovereignty in Greenland, and that Greenlanders themselves have no wish to become a U.S. protectorate is of no moment to Mr. Trump. The U.S. has an established military presence in Greenland through a 1951 agreement with Denmark, in the presence of a  remote airbase. Speculation over the manner in which the U.S. might assert its claims on the North abound.

 

The U.S. military raid in Venezuela that resulted in the scooping up of the country's President Nicolas Maduro and his wife and taking them to the U.S. to stand trial for narcotics trafficking appears to have put the U.S. President in the mood to flex his military muscles and exert pressure on both enemies and allies alike.  While Cuba and Colombia are in his crosshairs, so too are Denmark/Greenland and Canada, Trump's fanciful '51st State'. 

 

Trump is reportedly taking aim at Canada and expressing concern about its 'vulnerability' to adversaries after his previous threats to make the country the ‘51st state’   Getty Images 

 

"I think the EU and Canada, all of us are tiptoeing around Trump because we know he is very volatile." 

"We are all economically very dependent on the U.S. and militarily dependent on the U.S."

"[A potential rupture in NATO and Trump's] Donroe Doctrine [runs the risk of creating] strong men [spheres of influence across the world]."

"This then gives the nod to Russia to continue to control its sphere of influence and perhaps continue to try and annex Ukraine. And China is going to take this as a licence to be able to dominate its area of the world."

"We've seen in history when you have this multipolarity and these multiple spheres of influence, there's the greatest likelihood of conflict because of this increased great power competition."

"And then accidents and incidents are more likely to be interpreted as nefarious, and everybody comes out swinging."

Andrea Charron, director, Centre for Defence and Security Studies, University of Manitoba