Lessons from the Greenland crisis

This week, Mark Leonard is joined by Tiago Antunes, Portugal’s former secretary of state for European affairs and senior visiting fellow at ECFR, and Jim O’Brien, former US assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, to reflect on the recent transatlantic crisis over Greenland. 

After meetings in Copenhagen with Danish and Greenlandic leaders, and Tiago’s visit to Nuuk, Mark discusses with him and Jim how tensions escalated, why they were diffused at Davos, and what lessons Europe can draw from the episode. 

What mood are the Danes in? How do they assess Trump’s motivations? Has the crisis brought Greenlanders closer to Denmark? And how did Denmark go about building European unity to oppose Donald Trump’s moves? 

Bookshelf 

Indignity: Life Reimagined by Lea Ypi 

Everybody Loves Our Dollars by Oliver Bullough 

This episode was recorded on February 11th 2026 

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