In an unprecedented move that threatens to fracture the Western alliance, Denmark has called for a NATO mission to bolster Greenland's defenses—effectively seeking protection from the military bloc's most powerful member, the United States.
Danish officials confirmed Sunday that Copenhagen is urging the alliance to establish a formal presence in the autonomous territory, according to Euractiv, as President Donald Trump continues to refuse ruling out military force to seize the island.
The request places NATO in an impossible position. The alliance's collective defense provisions were designed to protect members from external threats—primarily the Soviet Union during the Cold War and, more recently, an assertive Russia. No mechanism exists for invoking Article 5, the mutual defense clause, when one member threatens another.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, speaking to reporters in Copenhagen, emphasized that any NATO deployment would be framed as defending alliance territory rather than confronting Washington. "Greenland is Danish territory, and therefore NATO territory," he said, according to European media reports. "We are simply asking the alliance to fulfill its obligations."
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. NATO's founding treaty, signed in Washington in 1949, declares that an armed attack against one member in Europe or shall be considered an attack against all. , as part of the Kingdom of , falls under this protection. The alliance has never confronted a scenario where the threat originates from within its own ranks.
