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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   1229 thread views

Transnational Thursday for March 27, 2025

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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Why does the US (Trump) have any interest in Greenland? I don't get it. Is there some massive rare earths deposit there that I haven't heard of...

China has been trying to take over international shipping lanes. Trump sees US control of them as critical in the long term.

Greenland only has 57,000 people. If the Northwest Passage becomes a more viable shipping route it's an obvious chokepoint for China to try to control.

The US is already paying to defend it by having a base there. Greenlanders would most likely be better off as a US territory. Denmark isn't doing much for them.

57,000 people is less than the monthly illegal immigrant entries under Biden, so it's pretty easy for the US to invest in new programs to benefit the residents in exchange for becoming a territory.

Plus there is likely oil that can be developed with modern technology.

The only downside for Greenland I can see is the Jones Act possibly causing some problems. I don't know any of the details about shipping there.

If you look at the location of actual passable (sometimes) routes through the Arctic, Greenland is nowhere near them -- doesn't make sense, particularly not for China.

There's probably oil though -- not sure how exploitable it would be however.

actual passable (sometimes) routes through the Arctic

That can change if things get warmer though. Also, Greenland is near the Western (US/Canada adjacent) route, though it's the less usable now, but again could change in the future.

Greenland is near the Western (US/Canada adjacent) route,

It really isn't -- look at a proper Northern projection, there's no reason to go anywhere near Greenland on the traditional passage. And that route (despite alarmism) is not reliably ice free even mid-summer -- if you are waiting for the actual polar icecap to go away, that seems like a much longer time horizon than I'd expect Trump to be considering. Not to mention that if you could sail right over the North Pole, Greenland would be quite irrelevant -- there's a lot of (potential) ocean up there, one could easily keep one's distance from any landmass at all.

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