President Trump’s determination to increase American influence and presence in Greenland has generated great interest in the future of the world’s largest island and its surrounding regions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While Trump's offhand idea of purchasing Greenland is preposterous, it jolted the Danish government and its European NATO/EU allies. At the same time, the evident US-Danish tensions may have increased the Greenlanders’ resolve to move faster towards full independence in the not-too-distant future.
Iceland is Greenland’s closest neighbour in Europe. In 1944, Iceland declared full independence from Denmark, at a time when Greenland was still a Danish colony. When the Icelanders severed their final ties with their erstwhile masters in Copenhagen, there were doubters among the Great Powers about this small nation’s ability to stand on its own feet in a bipolar world. Similar words can be heard today about the capabilities of some 57,000 Greenlanders and their national aspirations when so many have their eyes on the Arctic. This event will focus on the current position and future developments of these two countries in the Arctic and the North Atlantic at large.
Meet our speakers and chair
is a professor of history at the University of Iceland. From 2016-2024, he was President of Iceland. In his previous academic career, he focused on Iceland’s diplomatic and political history in the twentieth history up to the present. As head of state, he emphasized the need to maintain a delicate balance between independence and interdependence in the international system.
Kristina Spohr is Professor of International History at 杏吧论坛. In 2018-20, she was the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. She is author and editor of Post Wall, Post Square: Rebuilding the World after 1989. She is currently writing a global history of the Arctic, having held one of the 2023-24 Intl Competition Fellowships at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute in Washington DC.
Jeffrey Chwieroth is Professor of International Relations and Head of Department in the Department of International Relations at 杏吧论坛. He is also a co-investigator of the Systemic Risk Centre, Associate of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and a faculty affiliate at the Phelan United States Centre at 杏吧论坛.
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