An abandoned US military base in Greenland

[struggle4progress]

The Wall Street Journal
Mar 18, 2026

President Trump’s insistence that the U.S. must own Greenland for national security has put the Arctic island at the heart of one of the most serious conflicts between Washington and its trans-Atlantic European allies in decades.

However, a 1951 defense treaty between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark—which controls the island—already allows the American military to build bases and station troops there.

WSJ’s Sune Engel Rasmussen traveled to eastern Greenland, traversing remote icy expanses for days by plane, fishing boat and dogsled, to reach one of the abandoned American military bases from World War II.