Will Europe Defend Greenland?

President Macron’s initial response to the U.S. invasion of Venezuela was less than inspiring. He simply applauded the removal of a brutal dictator without mentioning the fact that the manner of his removal violated international law and the UN Charter, of which he had previously styled himself a champion. Even Giorgia Meloni, an avowed Trump supporter, was able to muster the courage to denounce the US action as contrary to international law.

Today, however, Macron has revised his position, perhaps because he has been stung by the strong negative reaction of many French commentators, who were quick to portray him as toadying to Trump. He now says that France “neither supported nor approved” the “method used” to remove Maduro from Venezuela. “We defend international law,” reiterating previous statements he seemed temporarily to have forgotten.

Macron’s recovery, however graceless and belated, is not enough, however. Because Europe itself is under threat from a United States now intoxicated with its military power and led by an irresponsible clique convinced that might makes right and that international law is no obstacle to the pursuit of a superpower’s objectives. Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that the United States “needs” Greenland. As with Venezuela, the reasons for this need vary erratically: sometimes it is because Greenland holds important mineral resources, other times because the island is “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships,” still other times simply because this large land mass is somehow part of America’s manifest destiny. The fact that it is an autonomous region of Denmark, an ostensible ally and NATO member is of no moment to the U.S. ruling clique, which fetishizes “ownership” over the mere influence, control, and domination with which previous leaders have been satisfied.

Is the threat to seize Denmark mere bluster? One never knows with Trump, but abducting Maduro and obliterating fishing boats on the high seas, also actions that once seemed beyond the pale, are now facts. Europe should treat the threat to Denmark as a potential fact as well. Raphaël Glucksmann acknowledges this:

Ne prenez pas ces gens à la légère. L’ambition qu’ils affichent sur le Groenland, terre européenne, n’est pas qu’un bluff. Elle se concrétisera bientôt si nous sommes incapables de la moindre fermeté face à Trump. Dans un monde sans droit, où les empires laissent libre cours à leurs ambitions et règne la seule logique de la force, une Europe faible et divisée sera dépecée. Nos incantations morales et nos arguments juridiques n’y feront rien. La seule manière pour nous d’être en sécurité et d’avoir un destin réellement libre, c’est l’affirmation d’une puissance européenne digne de ce nom. Il n’y a rien de plus urgent, de plus important que la construction de cette puissance souveraine et autonome. C’est le combat de ma vie depuis mon entrée dans l’âge adulte. Et c’est devenu le combat du siècle pour chacune et chacun d’entre nous. Tous ceux qui œuvrent aujourd’hui contre l’émergence de cette puissance ne sont pas des patriotes, mais des idéologues résolus à vassaliser nos peuples. Des soumis, par faiblesse ou par ressentiment. Les vrais patriotes, ceux qui veulent que la France ait a nouveau une voix forte et un avenir digne, sont ceux qui luttent chaque jour pour une Europe puissante et indépendante.

Macron would be wise to heed these words and respond with action: it is time for Europe to assert its sovereignty and support Denmark’s position in Greenland by inserting a European force to protect the territory from seizure by the United States.