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The Monroe Doctrine and the Governance of Greenland’s Security

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Governing the North American Arctic

Part of the book series: St Antony’s Series ((STANTS))

Abstract

On the first anniversary of the April 1940 German invasion of Denmark, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Danish Ambassador Henrik Kauffmann signed the Denmark–United States Agreement for the Defense of Greenland.3 The controversial act signaled a major shift in American foreign policy relating to the island, which until as late as May of 1939 had been dismissed by military planners as having limited strategic value to the United States.4 Following the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, however, technological developments in aviation and increased global demand for Greenland’s natural resources led American policymakers to reconsider the island’s place within the Western Hemisphere. The 1941 agreement formalized this change in thinking. It explicitly extended the Monroe Doctrine to Greenland, identifying the Danish colony for the first time as part of the hemisphere within which the United States would not tolerate the intervention of other foreign powers. The agreement also granted the American government temporary control over the security of the island, until such time as ‘the dangers to the peace and security’ of the continent had passed.5

Defense of Greenland against attack by a non-American Power is essential to the preservation of the peace and security of the American continent and is a subject of vital concern to the United States of America.1

(Denmark-United States Agreement for the Defense of Greenland, 1941)

The relationship we seek is not about a United States declaration about how and when it will intervene in the affairs of other American States. It is about all of our countries viewing one another as equals, sharing responsibilities, cooperating on security issues, and adhering not to doctrine, but to the decisions that we make as partners to advance the values and interests we share.2

(John Kerry, US Secretary of State, 2013)

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Notes

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Authors
  1. Dawn Alexandrea Berry
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Cornell University, USA

    Dawn Alexandrea Berry (Postdoctoral Fellow) (Postdoctoral Fellow)

  2. Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford, UK

    Nigel Bowles (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

  3. St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, UK

    Halbert Jones (Senior Research Fellow) (Senior Research Fellow)

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© 2016 Dawn Alexandrea Berry

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Berry, D.A. (2016). The Monroe Doctrine and the Governance of Greenland’s Security. In: Berry, D.A., Bowles, N., Jones, H. (eds) Governing the North American Arctic. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137493910_5

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