E
uropean leaders have oscillated between disbelief and denial in response to the United States' announced annexation of Greenland. "If the United States chooses to launch a military attack on another NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] country, then everything stops," warned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. "That scenario does not exist," declared Emmanuel Macron. Instead of commenting on the unthinkable, Europeans would be better served by taking action. They need to dare to engage in a balance of power and to draw red lines; such is the purpose of diplomacy. It is also a matter of territorial sovereignty and solidarity, as well as dignity and honor.
Within a democratic bloc like the European Union, the credibility of political leaders would be fundamentally undermined if they were to surrender, without resistance, a part of their territory – Greenland, one of the 13 "overseas countries and territories associated with the EU" – and, at the same time, abandon the sovereign people of Greenland to the US. How then could the EU continue to support Ukraine's territorial integrity on the grounds that Kyiv's defeat would open the door to a Russian military assault on the EU?
