Rare Earths and Radar The Strategy Behind the US Push for Greenland

NUUK:  As the White House refuses to take military intervention off the table, the question remains: why has a semi-autonomous island of 57,000 people become the center of American foreign policy?

A confidential State Department analysis, commissioned at the request of Secretary Marco Rubio’s team, recently assessed Greenland’s “untapped resources.” The island is believed to hold some of the world’s largest deposits of rare earth minerals—elements essential for everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

However, the report also highlighted two major hurdles:

The cost of accessing these minerals in sub-zero temperatures is “tremendous.”

There is currently “no reliable study” confirming just how vast these resources truly are.

People take part in a march ending in front of the US consulate, under the slogan, Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people, in Nuuk, Greenland.

The US claim to interest in Greenland is often linked back to the Lansing Declaration of 1916. Under President Woodrow Wilson, the US agreed not to object to Danish possession of Greenland as part of the deal to purchase the Danish West Indies (now the US Virgin Islands). The current administration’s questioning of Denmark’s “territorial claim” suggests a potential desire to renegotiate or ignore this century-old agreement.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the US needs to acquire Greenland.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that a forced US takeover would mean “the end of the NATO alliance.” Denmark currently allows the US military broad access to the Thule Air Base (now Pituffik Space Base), but experts argue that coercive pressure undermines the “self-determination” that NATO exists to defend.

Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visiting Greenland.

While climate change is making Greenland’s minerals more accessible, it has not made the US more popular there. Vice President JD Vance was met with protests during a visit last year, and local polls show that while Greenlanders may desire independence from Denmark, they have little interest in becoming a US territory.

President Trump maintains the move is about “national security, not minerals.” However, with the Arctic becoming a new theater for Great Power competition with Russia and China, the administration appears willing to risk the stability of the Western alliance to secure the High North.