Security experts have issued a stark warning that former President Donald Trump's renewed threats to deploy the US military to seize Greenland are actively destabilising the global order and fracturing critical Western alliances.
A Return to 'Naked Imperialism'
Responding to the provocative calls for a takeover, Russia specialist Keir Giles told Metro.co.uk that the international destabilisation caused by America's apparent 'return to naked imperialism' is now 'careering out of control downhill.' The comments were made on January 7, 2026.
Giles explained that the restraint once exercised by the United States, which had a vested interest in a rules-based international system, has vanished. 'We are already in a situation of a wider conflict,' he stated, noting a hangover from the Biden administration. 'The number of conflicts worldwide has proliferated, and there has been a spike not only in the number of conflicts, but in the number of people that are being killed in them.'
He concluded that the world has entered an age of profound insecurity, where such US actions encourage regional aggressors to expand territory or settle old scores. 'The global destabilization that results from the new policy track of the US... is underway, and this will just accelerate the process,' Giles said.
NATO's Future in the Balance
The autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and the government in Copenhagen are urgently seeking a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to claim the strategic Arctic island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned this week that any US annexation would effectively mean the end of NATO. This grave assessment was echoed in a joint statement on Tuesday by the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, who reaffirmed that the mineral-rich island 'belongs to its people.'
Defence analyst Maria Martisiute of the European Policy Centre think tank stressed that Nordic nations do not make such statements lightly. 'But it is Trump, whose very bombastic language bordering on direct threats and intimidation, is threatening the fate of another ally,' she added.
Behind-the-Scenes Diplomacy Crucial
Keir Giles expressed hope that European leaders are engaged in substantive, private conversations with Washington, not merely relying on public statements. 'It is hard to see how the framing of that joint statement would influence US thinking,' he noted, 'since it appeals to principles and institutions that the US has demonstrated carry little weight in its decision making.'
'What we have to hope is this is part of a multi-track conversation where Europe is explaining to the US what the costs and consequences of any such move would be,' Giles said.
In a related diplomatic move, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot confirmed he spoke by phone with Secretary Rubio, who dismissed the idea of a 'Venezuela-style' intervention in Greenland. Barrot told France Inter radio that there remains massive US support for NATO, a membership that would be 'compromised' by aggression towards another member. When asked about a contingency plan should Trump act, Barrot refused to engage in 'fiction diplomacy.'
The escalating situation underscores how a new era of geopolitical tension may be ignited not in Eastern Europe or the South China Sea, but in the increasingly contested and resource-rich Arctic.
