A Newfoundland-born military strategist in Denmark says its up to world leaders and militaries to hold strong — and push back — against escalations from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Tom Crosbie, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen, said Friday that residents of Denmark feel both outrage and confusion over Trump’s desire to annex Greenland.
And while it might feel like a world away in Newfoundland and Labrador, Crosbie said Labrador’s proximity to Greenland highlights how everyone is connected in one way or another.
“We need to take a more proactive role in trying to push back against Trump, because now we see that, really, he’s quite openly rejecting norms of the rules of law,” Crosbie said.
“There’s a lot more is us than there is of him.”
(Royal Danish Defence College)
Crosbie works to educate Danish military officers in operations, as well as the social science and planning aspects of war.
While Greenland does play a central and changing role in global security, Crosbie said the U.S. has already long played a key role in that. Trump’s desire to increase that role seems sudden, he added, leaving him to question what Trump thinks he has to gain.
The situation is that we’re rebuilding a ship while we’re sailing it.- Tom Crosbie
This week, Trump said that he would no longer use force to acquire Greenland. It’s left Crosbie to wonder where Trump could go next.
“Denmark is not interested in trading Greenland for anything, so this may just be over now. But again, it’s hard to say,” Crosbie said.
Moving forward, Crosbie said it’s important for countries like Canada, those in the European Union and beyond to take a more proactive role in pushing back on Trump and his escalations.
That includes figuring out ways to operate without a reliance on the United States.
“The situation is that we’re rebuilding a ship while we’re sailing it,” Crosbie said.
(Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters)
“We’re trying to figure out how do we remove the United States from being inside all of our systems in all these different ways … without creating vulnerabilities in the eyes of our adversaries.”
Crosbie said he would advise policymakers to study what does and doesn’t work when negotiating with Trump to help make that possible.
For example, Crosbie said Trump seems focused on the “here and now”, so waiting things out and pushing any advantages a country has could prove beneficial.
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