Greenland is officially on edge, and for once the panic is not coming from Washington. It is coming from Europe. President Trump is expected to meet with a slate of European leaders tomorrow in Davos, Switzerland, and sitting right at the top of the agenda is Greenland. Not climate panels, not feel good speeches, but the very real question of whether the United States is serious about taking control of the Arctic island for national security reasons. Spoiler alert, President Trump is very serious. The reaction from Greenland’s leadership has been dramatic, bordering on hysterical. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen is already telling Greenland’s population to prepare for the “worst,” including the possibility of a military invasion. According to Bloomberg, Nielsen admitted that while conflict is “not likely,” it “can’t be ruled out.” That alone tells you how rattled Europe really is by Trump’s strategy. Greenland’s government is now forming a task force to deal with disruptions to daily life and has urged residents to stockpile at least five days worth of food. Let that sink in. A NATO aligned territory is telling its citizens to prepare emergency food supplies because President Trump is applying pressure. That is not bluster, that…

The context and why this matters Greenland sits at a strategic point in the Arctic and has drawn new international attention. That attention brought scrutiny to older, quieter harms. Longstanding policies from Danish rule now face public investigation. The basic facts are stark. Thousands of Greenlandic women and girls were subjected to forced contraception from the 1960s into the 1990s. Other programs removed Inuit children from their families for reeducation in Denmark. These are government actions with real victims. What investigators found about forced contraception Independent researchers documented that between roughly 1960 and 1991 many Greenlandic women had intrauterine devices or other birth control placed without informed consent. In one period alone, more than 4,500 girls and women reportedly received IUDs. Medical records and survivor testimony show that some recipients were as young as a dozen years old. These interventions were part of a larger pattern of control carried out by state institutions and health authorities. The 'Little Danes' experiment and child removals In the 1950s and 1960s a program known as the Little Danes sent Greenlandic children to Denmark for foster placement and schooling. Officials described the effort as educational and modernizing. Many Greenlandic families saw it as forced…