The Sundarban 
Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, in northern Greenland.
(Image credit ranking: Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
US President Donald Trump’s place on Greenland has shifted almost daily, from threats to take it by force to assurances he may perhaps no longer. Nevertheless one factor remains consistent: his insistence the Arctic island is strategically vital to the United States.
Within hours of the president’s speech at this week’s Davos summit, Reports began circulating that Washington and Copenhagen had quietly discussed giving the US small, far off patches of Greenland for new military sites. Nothing confirmed, the entire lot whispered, but the pace of the speculation said a lot.
What as soon as felt appreciate Trumpian theatre all of sudden looked appreciate a real geopolitical pass. It was also a trace Arctic vitality plays are now bleeding into the politics of outer space.
This all happened in a fast time. The plan the US may perhaps purchase Greenland from Denmark (which resurfaced in 2019) was at first treated appreciate a late-night comedy sketch.
Nevertheless at the back of the jokes lay a rising unease the Trump administration‘s fixation with Greenland was part of a wider geostrategic ambition in the “western hemisphere” – and past.
That’s because Greenland sits at the crossroads of two fast-transferring frontiers: a warming Arctic that will change delivery routes, and an increasingly militarised outer space.
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As global tensions rise, the island has change into a geopolitical stress gauge, revealing how the stale international legal relate is starting to fray.
At the centre of it all is Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. As soon as a Chilly War outpost, it be now a key part of the US military’s Space Power hub, vital for the entire lot from missile detection to climate tracking.
In a world the place orbit is the new high ground, that visibility is strategic gold.
Space law in a vacuum
Trump has leaned hard into this common sense. He is repeatedly praised Thule as one of the most important assets for watching what happens above the Earth, and has advised the US to “look at every option” to expand its presence.
Whether by force, payment or negotiation, the core message hasn’t changed: Greenland is central to America’s Arctic and space ambitions.
This is no longer lawful about military surveillance. As private companies launch rockets at file pace, Greenland’s geography offers one thing rare – top launch situations.
Excessive latitude sites are ideal for launching payloads into polar- and solar-synchronous orbits. Greenland’s empty expanses and launch ocean corridors make it a potential Arctic launch hub. With global launch capacity tightening attributable to fewer available sites and access issues, the island is all of sudden top rate real estate.
Nevertheless American hobby in Greenland is rising at the same time as the publish-war “rules-based international order” has proved increasingly ineffective at maintaining peace and security.
Space law is especially vulnerable now. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty was constructed for a world of two superpowers (the US and Soviet Union) and only a few satellites, no longer private satellite mega constellations, commercial lunar tasks, or asteroid mining.
It also by no means anticipated that Earth-based sites such as Thule/Pituffik would approach to a decision who can video display or dominate orbit.
As international locations scramble for strategic footholds, the treaty’s core ideas are being pushed to breaking point. Major powers now treat both the terrestrial and orbital realms much less appreciate global commons and extra appreciate strategic assets to retain an eye on and defend.
Greenland as warning stamp
Greenland sits squarely on this fault line. If the US have been to expand its retain an eye on over the island, it may perhaps command a disproportionate share of global space surveillance capabilities. That imbalance raises uncomfortable questions.
How can space purpose as a global commons when the instruments wished to supervise it are concentrated in so few hands? What happens when geopolitical competition on Earth spills at as soon as into orbit?
And how must international law adapt when terrestrial territory becomes a gateway to extraterrestrial influence? For many observers, the outlook is bleak. They argue the international legal system is no longer evolving but eroding.
The Arctic Council, the leading intergovernmental discussion board selling cooperation in the Arctic, is paralysed by geopolitical tensions. The United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space can’t retain pace with commercial innovation. And new space laws in several international locations increasingly prioritise resource rights and strategic advantage over collective governance.
Greenland, in this context, is no longer lawful a strategic asset; it be a warning stamp.
For Greenlanders, the stakes are immediate. The island’s strategic value offers them leverage, but also makes them vulnerable. As Arctic ice melts and new delivery routes emerge, Greenland’s geopolitical weight will only grow.
Its folks must navigate the ambitions of global powers while pursuing their have political and financial future, together with the chance of independence from Denmark.
What started as a political curiosity now exposes a deeper shift: the Arctic is turning into a entrance line of space governance, and the laws and treaties designed to manage this vast chilly territory and the space above it are struggling to retain up.
