Greenland, Trump and Power Politics: Ego or the Arctic Key

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Is Greenland central to US national security in an era of Arctic militarisation? Experts weigh

By TRH World Desk

New Delhi, January 18, 2026 — Is Greenland about Donald Trump’s ego—or about the hard edge of 21st-century geopolitics? That question now divides the transatlantic alliance.

Political analyst Ian Bremmer notes that most European leaders believe Trump’s fixation on Greenland reflects personal grandstanding rather than genuine US national security concerns. More troubling, he argues, is Washington’s failure to frame Greenland within NATO’s collective security needs—signalling pressure, not negotiation.

Yet beneath the diplomatic theatrics lies a strategic truth, as argued by US sympathisers, Europe is reluctant to confront. According to open-source intelligence assessments cited by Michael W. Homick in a post on LinekdIn, “Greenland sits at the very heart of Arctic and North Atlantic security.”

“The island anchors the Greenland–Iceland–UK (GIUK) gap—the narrow maritime corridor Russian submarines must traverse to reach the Atlantic. As Moscow expands Arctic bases, airfields, and missile systems to protect its Northern Fleet, control of this gap is no abstraction; it is the frontline of deterrence,” he argued.

Greenland’s Pituffik Space Base adds another irreplaceable layer, Homick argued. “It provides early missile-warning and space-tracking coverage over polar trajectories—routes increasingly favoured in Russian hypersonic strike planning,” asserted Homick. At the same time, China’s self-description as a “near-Arctic state” is no semantic game, he added. Beijing’s push for ports, mining rights, research stations and dual-use infrastructure points to a long-term strategy where economic presence becomes strategic leverage.

Climate change accelerates the stakes. “Melting ice is opening new sea lanes and exposing rare earths and critical minerals—supply chains still dominated by China,” added Homick. In this context, he noted, Greenland functions less as a frozen outpost and more as America’s northern shield.

Bremmer is right to warn that coercive diplomacy risks alienating allies already stretched by Ukraine. But dismissing Greenland as mere ego politics is equally dangerous, he stressed. “The real crisis is not whether Greenland matters to US national security—it does—but whether Washington can defend that reality without fracturing NATO itself,” added Bremmer.