Germany and France have both warned Donald Trump against threatening Denmark with military force, after the US president-elect amazingly claimed he does not rule out using military means to seize Denmark’s autonomous territory of Greenland. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot stated that “there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders.” Western imperialism is now biting within the West itself, with the colonial nature of US relationship with Europe and other allies once again being affirmed, as seen with Donald Trump’s Greenland and Canada threats.
The latest developments are quite telling: they show where the real threat to Europe comes from. Moreover, they highlight the hypocrisy of American discourses about Russian supposed imperialism pertaining to Ukraine. One just needs to pay attention to the manner US Establishment figures such as Elon Musk refer to Canada, for instance, teasingly calling its leaders “governors” of a US province and openly talking about annexation. Moreover, there is not a hint of, say, Chinese military bases in that country threatening the US or anything that would seem to justify any of this.
However, such plans, with regards to Greenland, for instance, precede Trump, who just happens to be so blunt about it. And they are a concern not just to its targets and to Europe, but to Russia as well. Much is being made, for example, about recent pro-Trump comments made by Russian polemicists and politologists who are endorsing trumpism, with its neo-Monroeism, because, they claim, this takes the American pressure away from Russia. For US Democrats, the existence of such opinions proves a “Trump/Putin nexus” because they assume that every Russian media person is controlled by the state.
It is true that neo-Monroeism is a large part of what Trumpism is about – it is hard to see, though, how this would be a positive development, from a Russian perspective or how it would be a good thing for the world in general, in terms of multipolarity.
Regardless of what some analysts say (either applauding it or condemning it) about a supposed Putin-Trump “nexus” or what not, the truth is that way before Trump’s vocal threats involving Greenland, Washington has been eyeing that portion of the world for a long time – as part of its goal to dominate the Arctic and thereby further “encircle” Russia. And this went on under Biden as well.
One may recall that in 2020, for the first time in 20 years, the British and American navies joined Norwegian and Danish forces in warships training exercises above the Arctic Circle. In the same year of 2020, the US State Department announced it intended to open a consulate in Greenland, and to allocate $12.1 million as financial aid. Trump, during his first presidency, had in fact already mentioned his supposed desire to buy Greenland. Joe Biden’s administration kept fueling tensions around the Arctic, as I wrote already in 2021.
Rising high temperatures in the region (which then allows navigation) are a great opportunity for the liquefied natural gas industry, for one thing. Moreover, under Biden we also saw rising tensions in the Gulf of Finland. One should keep in mind that the further enlargement of NATO under Biden, with Swedish and Finnish membership, has extended the Alliance’s territorial reach as far out as the Russian eastward Arctic flank (the Bering strait), thus making Russia the only non-NATO nation in the Arctic
Former US President Joe Biden is certainly less vocal and less given to bravado than Trump. Be it as it may, it was during Biden’s years that Washington came up with one of history’s boldest territory-grabbing measures, claiming a huge portion of the ocean floor, all the way from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic.
According to the US DOS Executive Summary called “The Outer Limits of the Extended Continental Shelf of the United States of America” (page 13), the North American nation has “maritime boundaries” or “unresolved” boundaries pertaining to the so-called “extended continental shelf” (ECS) with the following “neighboring countries”: Mexico, Cuba, the Bahamas (Atlantic region), Japan (Mariana Islands Region), and Russia (Arctic and Bering Sea Region), Canada (in the Arctic and Atlantic regions).
The US interests in the ocean floor (including the Gulf of Mexico), Canada and Greenland have a lot to do with energy interests for the so-called EV revolution and other goals. Such goals just happen to coincide largely with Elon Musk’s own commercial interests. Minerals such as cobalt, nickel and lithium are badly needed for the tech industry. Trump is now also considering declaring a national economic emergency so as to pave the way for a number of universal tariffs on both allies and rivals. This is basically Biden’s subsidy war on steroids.
To sum it up, Trump’s bold plans, although phrased in his own peculiar style, are not about one man’s inclinations or “madness” but rather have a lot to do with the superpower’s needs pertaining to energy and re-industrialization. These geoeconomic factors (plus the geopolitical ones), albeit intertwined as they are with business interests (be they of the Bidens or of Musk in each case), are also key to understanding American policies towards Europe and Ukraine. They are part of the desperate efforts of a declining and overburdened superpower and its elites remain on top – at any cost. Even if it means antagonizing close partners and neighbors.
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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Uriel Araujo, PhD, is an anthropology researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image is from InfoBrics
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