"President Donald Trump, a longtime NATO critic, has made the annexation of Greenland a key second-term objective, going so far as to suggest a willingness to engage in economic or military conflict to obtain the island. Not only are President Trump's statements controversial, but they also pose a grave threat to the NATO alliance's continued existence, as Greenland is a Danish territory - and Denmark, like the United States, is a founding NATO member."
"Under the terms laid out in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, an armed attack against one member state is considered an attack against all. Any outbreak of conflict between two or more NATO members could present an existential crisis for the alliance. While Trump recently walked back his previous comments, ruling out military intervention and economic sanctions as a means of wresting Greenland from Danish control, many American lawmakers and European officials fear that lasting damage to the trans-Atlantic alliance has already been done."
"As a military power, the United States is the single indispensable NATO member. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the U.S. spent $997.3 billion on defense in 2024, nearly double the $508.8 billion in combined defense spending among all 31 other NATO member states that year."
President Trump's public push to annex Greenland and past willingness to consider economic or military measures to obtain the island risk a direct dispute with Denmark, a fellow NATO founder. Article 5's collective-defense obligation means any armed conflict among members could force all allies into a crisis. The United States provides the lion's share of NATO's military capacity and spending, and recent Pentagon reductions in U.S. participation in advisory, special operations, and intelligence bodies amplify concerns about alliance cohesion and member vulnerability if NATO falters.
Read at 24/7 Wall St.
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