Expert blames 'superpower contest' for US being 'ruthless' about Greenland
CAMBRIDGE, UK: Polar security expert Tim Reilly says that the United States is being "ruthless" about Greenland because of a massive "superpower contest" with China.
Reilly, a UK-based analyst, explains that America is looking at the big picture of global safety.
Expert says Europe underestimates America’s ruthless power
Reilly says Europe fundamentally misunderstands how a superpower thinks. He argues that a “superpower contest is ruthless” and that the aim, quite plainly, is “to strangle the other.” Traditional European ideas about sovereignty, law, and human rights, he says, are no longer the primary lens through which a superpower operates.
According to Reilly, Trump’s ruthlessness is about strategic denial. He repeatedly stresses America’s fear that “if we don’t have Greenland, those Chinese and Russians will somehow get Greenland.” That fear, Reilly says, drives what the US sees as necessary behaviour, eliminating any possibility that China gains a foothold in the Arctic.
Reilly believes the US must be ruthless about Greenland because in a superpower struggle with China, denying rivals strategic territory matters more than diplomatic niceties, allied sensitivities, or traditional notions of sovereignty.
Reilly also said that the US wants to own Greenland to ensure it has a permanent home in the Arctic. By owning Greenland, he said, “maritime-wise,” Trump wants to “crush any idea of a China-EU trade deal,” adding that “this is the ruthlessness that Europe doesn’t get; how ruthless America is, and superpowers always are.”
Furthermore, he compares it to a billionaire who buys a house instead of staying at hotels in a town he has business interests in.
“It’s like a billionaire saying that I can stay at the best hotels in London, but if I’m going to be doing major deals in the next ten years, I’m going to buy a couple of houses. I’m going to buy. I don’t want to rent, I want to buy. I’m serious. This is a signal that this billionaire is in town. You need to take me seriously.”
Reilly explains that by owning the land, the US tells the rest of the world that they are staying for good and aren't going to "mess around."
Expert says Greenland sensors counter fast missiles
A major reason for this move is to stop other powerful countries from moving in first.
The former associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge called this "strategic denial," explaining the American fear that “if we don’t have Greenland, those Chinese and Russians will somehow get Greenland.”
Reilly reiterated that, "as a superpower, America needs to be able to stop China, the other global superpower, from getting a more entrenched foothold in the Arctic."
Reilly also said that because new missiles are so fast, the US needs sensors in Greenland to see them early "because of the curvature of the Earth."
US involvement could spark calls for Greenland's independence
This fight for Greenland could change things for many other people, including Indigenous groups.
Reilly says this might be a chance for Greenland to become independent from Denmark, but that could cause “similar appeals from other Indigenous folks” in places like Canada or New Zealand.
Furthermore, while concluding his stance, Reilly said that the world is being split into two camps, the US and China.
For every other country, the time for staying neutral is ending, and they “will just have to get into one camp or the other.”
He warned that “middle powers will soon have to choose their poison.”
