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Following America’s extraordinary raid on Venezuela last week, Donald Trump has pointed to Greenland, which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, as the territory he plans to turn his attention to next, staking a claim he has made repeatedly since his return to the White House. Trump said this week that America needs Greenland ‘for national security. Right now’. He told reporters he is ‘very serious’ in his intent.

The US President might be claiming Greenland in the name of peace and stability, but there is every chance his neo-imperial attempts to see off the threat from China and Russia will backfire. Will his actions herald the return to a land-grabbing, power–flaunting global order like that of the 19th century? Crucially for Europe, could Vladimir Putin see America’s actions in Venezuela and ambitions for Greenland as a justification to reach further west in his bid to restore the fabled Russkiy Mir of Russia’s tsars?

‘We cannot sit back and assume that a possible Russian attack won’t happen until 2029 at the earliest’

This question is certainly worrying Europe’s leaders. Last month, Nato chief Mark Rutte travelled to Berlin to warn that Russia could be ready to use ‘military force’ against the alliance by 2030. ‘Conflict is at our door. Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.’

Germany is one country responding to Rutte’s call to arms. In the coming weeks, letters addressed to German 18-year-olds will start dropping on doormats, inviting them to fill out an online questionnaire aimed at establishing their ability and interest in joining the army.

Thanks to Germany’s voluntary military service law, passed a few weeks before Christmas, the failure by any young man to fill out the survey will be punishable by a fine. (For the moment, the quiz remains optional for women.) Any young person who expresses willingness to join the Bundeswehr will be invited to an in-person assessment and medical. According to the German ministry of defence, this recruitment drive will affect approximately 650,000 people each year.

Most immediately, this survey will allow Berlin to conduct a kind of stocktake of fighting-age men who could be called on in a national emergency. Germany’s defence and security officials have been among the loudest in Europe in warning about the risk Putin poses to the continent. Martin Jäger, the Federal Intelligence Service chief, warned in October: ‘We cannot sit back and assume that a........

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