Cold War Greenland as a Space for International Scientific Collaboration

Abstract

Henrik Knudsen examines Denmark’s and the USA’s distinct views of Arctic research in the 1960s and discusses the political and geostrategic factors that shaped and limited international research activities in Greenland during this period. He argues that when Denmark tried to create Arctic test stations in 1964 that could be open to Soviet researchers, the USA opposed them because of its own defense considerations. Knudsen concludes that the Danish government did invite Soviet researchers into this contested space in Greenland, while banning US-developed projects that it thought could potentially harm the international process of détente.