Four ways to understand what’s going on with U.S., Denmark, Greenland

European countries, and Denmark in particular, are scrambling to respond to threats from U.S. officials over the future of Greenland.

Having successfully taken out the leadership of Venezuela in a raid on January 3, an emboldened U.S. government is talking about simply taking Greenland for itself.

Various European leaders have expressed their concern but haven’t been able to formulate a coherent response to the betrayal by a supposed ally.

Since the September 11 attacks in 2001, Danish governments have willingly participated in U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2007). The rightward movement across the Danish political spectrum had led to Denmark rejecting some Nordic and EU cooperation in favour of pro-U.S. transatlanticism.

However, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a rethink of Danish foreign policy. The country joined the EU’s common security and defence policy and tightened cooperation with recent Nato members Finland and Sweden.

And when Donald Trump came to power [U.S. President] for the second time, the chaotic rightward swing of U.S. foreign policy left Denmark reaching out for support from its EU colleagues over the challenge to Greenland.

Trump says U.S. needs to own Greenland to deter Russia, China

While a member of the European Union, Denmark has placed itself at the bloc’s periphery since copying the U.K. in opting out of the euro and from cooperation in justice and home affairs. But any U.S. invasion of Greenland is likely to break Denmark’s fixed exchange rate policy with the euro (and before that the deutschmark) that has been in place since 1982. So there are economic implications as well as territorial implications.

The fallout from the U.S.’ threats, and certainly any U.S. intervention in Greenland, goes much further than Denmark. While the EU tried to stay in step with the U.S. in its support of Ukraine during Joe Biden’s presidency, since the re-election of Mr. Trump, EU member states have very much fallen out with the U.S. During 2025, the U.S. and EU clashed over trade and tariffs, social media regulation, environment and agriculture policies.

But the latest developments demonstrate that Mr. Trump’s U.S. can no longer be trusted as a long-term ally – to Greenland and Denmark, the EU and Europe.

This is a crisis engulfing many countries and triggered by many drivers. In order to understand this complex situation, we can use four different analytical approaches from academic thinking. These can help us contextualise not just the Greenland case, but also the emerging multipolar world of “might makes right”.

Trump weighs military option to acquire Greenland

1. Realism

Currently, the most popular approach comes from within the conservative tradition of “realism”. This predicts that every state will act in their own national interest.

In this framing, Mr. Trump’s actions are part of the emergence of a multipolar world, in which the great powers are the U.S., China, India and Russia. In this world, it makes sense for Russia to invade Ukraine to counter the U.S., for the U.S. to seize assets in Venezuela and Greenland to counter China, and for China to invade Taiwan to counter the U.S.

2. The new elites

Many think that to understand the events of the past few years, including Mr. Trump’s return and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policies, you need to look beyond conservative or liberal explanations to seek out who holds power and influence in the global superpowers. That means the wealthy families, corporations and oligarchs who exert control over the politics of the ruling elite through media and campaign power and finance.

In the cases of Venezuela and Greenland, there are two factors at work – the U.S. rejection of the rule of law and the desire for personal wealth via energy resources. But the timing is also important. The operation in Venezuela has been the only story to eclipse the Epstein files in the news in many months.

3. The decline of the liberal order

Many academic explanations see these recent events in the context of the decline of a “liberal order” dominated by the U.S., Europe, the “developed world” and the U.N. In this view, the actions of Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump are seen as the last days of international law, the importance of the U.N., and what Western nations see as a system based on multilateralism.

However, this approach tends to overlook the continued dominance of the global north in these systems. The lack of support for the U.S. and EU’s defence of Ukraine has been repeatedly demonstrated in the unwillingness of many countries, including China and India, to condemn the Russian invasion in the U.N. General Assembly. It would be interesting to see how such voting would play out if it related to a U.S. invasion of Greenland.

Greenland purchase an active discussion, Trump is committed to NATO: White House

4. The planetary approach

The final – and most important – view is found in the planetary politics approach. This approach is based on the simple observation that so many planetary crises, such as global heating, mass extinctions of wildlife, climate refugees, rising autocracy and the return of international conflict are deeply interrelated and so can only be understood when considered together.

From this perspective, it is Greenland’s sustainability and Greenlanders’ lives that must shape the understanding of Denmark’s and other European responses to Mr. Trump’s claims. It is through acknowledging the deep relationship that indigenous people have to their ecology that solutions can be found.

And Greenlanders have already expressed their vision for the future. Living on the frontline of the climate crisis, they want an economy built on resilience – not on ego-driven political drama.

While it’s quick and easy to judge the events in Venezuela or Greenland in terms of the daily news cycle, the four perspectives set out here force people to think for themselves about how best to understand complex international crises.

There is, however, a final observation to emphasise. Only one of these perspectives is likely to bring any way of thinking ourselves out of our planetary political crisis.

Ian Manners is professor, Department of Political Science, Lund University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here.

Published – January 10, 2026 12:15 pm IST