Greenland may be our first, best, and last chance to stand up to Donald Trump |
A military vessel of the Royal Danish Navy patrols near Nuuk, Greenland, on Thursday.Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press
Michael Byers teaches global politics and international law at the University of British Columbia.
My first encounter with the Sirius Patrol came after I’d delivered a speech at a conference in Nuuk, Greenland, in 2019.
A young man wearing Danish military camouflage approached me. He was tall and lean, with a weather-beaten face and piercing blue eyes.
“You’re right about the Arctic being a dangerous place,” he said. “Last winter, I travelled by dog sled along the coast of northeastern Greenland.”
“Did you see anyone?” I asked.
“No people,” he smiled. “No Russians, no Chinese, but lots of hungry polar bears!”
Each year, the Danish military deploys 12 men and more than 150 huskies into the vastness of northern Greenland. Divided into six groups of two sleds, they fan out over thousands of kilometres of snow and ice on missions that last six months.
The Sirius Patrol was created during the Second World War to search out and destroy secret German weather stations. It’s also one of the ways that Denmark maintains its claim over the world’s largest island.
In 1933, the Permanent Court of International Justice held that Denmark had successfully established sovereignty over all of Greenland because the presence required to do so in a remote and extreme location is less than that required elsewhere.
Today, satellites and aircraft fulfill most of Denmark’s surveillance needs. The Sirius Patrol survives because some on-the-ground activity is still required.
It helps that the United States has recognized Danish sovereignty over Greenland on numerous occasions, including in a 1951 defence agreement that was updated in 2004.
The Sirius Patrol contributes to maintaining public support in Denmark for the considerable expense of patrolling Greenland and supporting its remote communities. From a public-relations perspective, it’s the equivalent of an astronaut program, with its members being feted as heroes when they return home.
The Sirius Patrol is just one part of Denmark’s small but highly capable military. In May, 2023, I taught at the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen. My students were mid-career officers; most had served in Afghanistan. Denmark lost 43 soldiers in that conflict, the highest per-capita casualty rate of any NATO country.
In addition to being Arctic-trained and battle-hardened, Danish soldiers are also motivated by a historic........