A year ago, if we had offered an assessment of the Arctic, we would have identified two main power blocs: NATO and Russia. Today, however, this configuration is changing. Rather than NATO as a unified actor, we increasingly see the United States and Europe appearing as distinct players, while Russia seems to have assumed, at least in part, a balancing role.
With U.S. President Donald Trumpβs move regarding Greenland, attention in the global system has once again turned to the Arctic. Yet this interest in the Arctic is not new. Since the Cold War, the U.S. has regarded the region as a critical space for its strategic security. In this context, it can be argued that the growing visibility of the gap between what Washington seeks to achieve in the Arctic and what it actually possesses in realpolitik terms has particularly coincided with the Trump era.
In response to Trumpβs aggressive stance on Greenland and his declared intent to βacquireβ the island, Russia made an unexpected move by characterizing Greenland as Danish territory. Whether this was primarily a legal argument or a maneuver shaped by shifting power dynamics remains unclear. What is evident, however, is that Greenland and the Arctic are likely to become the stage of a much deeper and more enduring cold rivalry
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