As Donald Trump weighs up taking control of Greenland, Britain and the EU has fallen back on a familiar strategy: talk tough, and do nothing. The UK joined France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark yesterday in making a joint statement affirming that ‘Greenland belongs to its people’. Arctic security, it said, must respect ‘sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders’.

Greenland would be the moment when that pretence finally collapses

If Donald Trump decides to take Greenland, much like today’s statement, Europe’s initial response would be loud, formal and legally impeccable. Europe and the UK would protest loudly, threaten, – and then do almost nothing at all. There is no mechanism legal, military or political capable of preventing such a move once Trump decides it’s strategically necessary. The uncomfortable truth is that Europe has spent three decades outsourcing its security to the United States while pretending this arrangement came without consequences. Greenland would be the moment when that pretence finally collapses.

The mechanics would be brutally simple. The United States already maintains a permanent military presence on Greenland. American forces wouldn’t need to invade a hostile territory or fight their way in. They’d already be on the ground. Control of airspace, ports and communications could be asserted within hours. There’d be no battlefield, no campaign, and no meaningful resistance. The issue is not whether Washington can take Greenland, but whether anyone could prevent it.

Nato would be the first refuge of Europe’s outrage, and the first illusion to fall away. The alliance is not an organisation capable of disciplining its most powerful member. It’s a pact built around American power, American logistics, American intelligence and........

© The Spectator