As 2026 unfolded, U.S. foreign policy dominated the headlines, with two developments standing out. First, the removal of Nicolás Maduro as president of Venezuela on drug trafficking charges and the subsequent U.S. attempt to gain full control over the country’s oil reserves; and second, the growing U.S. interest in Greenland, a territory ultimately governed by Denmark. We are clearly entering a period—at least in the short to medium term—where international norms and conventions are being aggressively challenged and, in some cases, overturned. Of course, we are only at the beginning of this potentially new epoch, and there is no certainty regarding the duration or depth of the changes that may occur. Nevertheless, many politicians and commentators are speculating about which other countries might be in President Trump’s line of sight. It is within this context that I consider the position of European non-sovereign territories in the Western Hemisphere and whether the U.S. might have any interest in them.

U.S. involvement in the hemisphere is long established, and small (largely island) states and territories have not been shielded from U.S. action—perhaps most clearly with its invasion of Grenada in 1983 after the collapse of the revolutionary government. But in smaller ways, too, the U.S. has had an interest—for instance, the Naval Air Station Bermuda, a U.S. Navy establishment from 1940 to 1995 in Bermuda (a British Overseas Territory). Small islands have often been buffeted and compromised by U.S. national interests. Indeed, in 1917, the U.S. purchased the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) from Denmark.

While recent U.S. interest in Greenland highlights ambitions beyond the continental sphere, similar logic could well apply to European territories in the Western Hemisphere. If you include the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, there are 19 European overseas territories in the hemisphere: several are integral parts of the metropolitan power, such as Martinique (France) and Bonaire (Netherlands), while others are associated with, but ultimately ruled by, the metropole—for example, Aruba (Netherlands) and the British Virgin Islands (Britain).

What interest might the U.S. have in these British, Dutch, and French territories? French Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, just east of Venezuela, is particularly significant due to its size and........

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