So you want to own Greenland?

Elizabeth Buchanan’s So You Want to Own Greenland? Lessons from the Vikings to Trump is exactly the kind of book that suits the Power & Corridors lens. It is about geography, power, resources, strategic ambition, great-power competition and the long history behind today’s headlines. It is also a genuinely enjoyable read. Buchanan takes a subject that could easily become dry, including Greenland’s constitutional status, Danish stewardship, American strategic interest, Arctic access, critical minerals and sovereignty politics, and turns it into a sharp, readable and educational account of why this vast island has repeatedly attracted outside attention.

The book’s title is deliberately provocative, but the argument underneath it is serious. Greenland is not simply an icy expanse on the edge of the map. It sits at the northern gateway of the Atlantic, links Arctic and North American security, holds mineral and energy potential, and has become more accessible as climate change reshapes the Arctic operating environment. Buchanan’s central strength is that she shows how the present cannot be understood without the long historical arc: the Viking presence, Inuit settlement, Danish-Norwegian colonial return, Greenlandic self-government, American wartime basing, Cold War defence infrastructure, and the renewed political drama of Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland.

The book, published by Hurst in 2025, runs to 203 pages and traces Greenland’s strategic significance from the Vikings through Danish rule and into the modern era of United States interest, including renewed American pressure during Trump’s second administration. Buchanan is well placed to tell this story. She is a polar geopolitics specialist, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a visiting fellow at the Center for the National Interest in Washington, and the author of previous work on Russian Arctic strategy.

What makes the book especially useful is that it does not treat Greenland as a passive object of outside ambition. The people of Greenland are central to the story. Buchanan makes clear that Greenland’s population, predominantly Inuit, has its own political direction and a strong desire for greater independence from Denmark. That point matters. Too much strategic commentary treats places like Greenland as assets, gateways, bases or resource zones. Buchanan’s book reminds the reader that sovereignty is not just a map question. It is also a human, political and economic question.

The dilemma is that independence is not simply a matter of aspiration. Greenland remains financially dependent on Denmark, and its path toward full sovereignty is tied to the difficult question of economic sustainability. Natural resources, particularly critical minerals, could help change that equation, but they remain challenging to develop. The Arctic environment is harsh, infrastructure is limited, and outside investment brings its own political risks. In that sense, the book captures one of the core tensions of Greenland’s future: independence may require economic development, but development may invite precisely the kind of external pressure Greenland wants to manage on its own terms.

Buchanan is especially strong when explaining why Greenland matters to the United States. American interest is not new. The United States looked at acquiring Greenland in the nineteenth century, relied on it during the Second World War, and retained a strategic military presence during the Cold War and after. Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, remains a visible reminder that Greenland is deeply embedded in North American defence thinking. From a Washington perspective, Greenland is part of the wider defence architecture of the North Atlantic and Arctic approaches. From a Greenlandic and Danish perspective, however, that same geography raises uncomfortable questions about sovereignty, alliance politics and consent.

The book’s treatment of Trump’s Greenland ambitions is useful because Buchanan does not reduce the issue to personality alone. Trump’s language may have been unusually blunt, but the underlying strategic logic is older and wider than one administration. Greenland sits at the intersection of Arctic security, missile warning, sea-lane access, critical minerals and great-power competition with Russia and China. That is why the “own Greenland” debate matters. It may sound absurd at first glance, but it exposes a much deeper reality: in a world of renewed strategic competition, geography is back, and places once seen as remote are becoming central.

For Power & Corridors readers, this is where the book really lands. Greenland is a corridor story as much as it is an Arctic story. It is about the opening and contesting of northern routes, the relationship between infrastructure and sovereignty, and the way minerals, ports, bases and maritime access shape political choices. It also speaks to a wider theme: small populations and middle powers often find themselves managing the ambitions of larger powers. Denmark, Greenland and the United States are allies, but alliance does not erase asymmetry. Buchanan handles that tension well.

The book is also refreshingly readable. It is concise, direct and often witty. It does not bury the reader in academic jargon, nor does it flatten the topic into a simplistic “great powers want resources” argument. Instead, Buchanan gives the reader enough history to understand the present and enough strategic context to see why the future of Greenland will remain contested. The final scenarios she examines, including independence, interrupted independence, possible incorporation into the United States, and the continuation of the status quo, are useful because they force readers to think beyond headlines. The most likely outcome may still be continuity, but the pressures around Greenland are clearly intensifying.

There is also a broader lesson here. The Arctic is not a frozen emptiness waiting to be claimed. It is inhabited, governed, strategic, fragile and increasingly connected to the rest of the world. Greenland’s future will be shaped by local political will, Danish policy, American security demands, Chinese and Russian interest, climate change, mineral economics and the practical limits of Arctic infrastructure. Buchanan’s book brings all of those threads together in a way that is accessible without being shallow.

So You Want to Own Greenland? is therefore more than a book about Greenland. It is a book about how power thinks about territory, how geography becomes strategy, and how small communities can sit at the centre of global competition. For readers interested in Arctic policy, maritime security, critical minerals, great-power rivalry or the return of strategic geography, it is a highly worthwhile read.

It is enjoyable, educational and timely, and for Power & Corridors, it fits almost perfectly.