On Greenland and U.S. Strategic Interests in the Arctic
23 January 2026

On Greenland and U.S. Strategic Interests in the Arctic

CFR On the Record

About

In this episode, experts discuss the United States’ renewed interest in Greenland—which the Trump administration argues is vital to U.S. national security—and what it means for Arctic security, the NATO alliance, and great power competition.


 


Background Reading:



    This article unpacks Trump’s increasingly assertive push to bring Greenland under U.S. control and what that means for the NATO alliance and the Arctic. 

 


Host: David E. Sanger, White House and National Security Correspondent, New York Times; CFR Member


 


Guests: Heather A. Conley, Nonresident Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Foreign and Defense Policy; Former President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States; CFR Member


 


Rebecca Pincus, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Research Institute; Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Security, German Marshall Fund of the United States; Former Director, Polar Institute, Wilson Center


 


Geoffrey Pyatt, Senior Managing Director, McLarty Associates; Former Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources and U.S. Ambassador to Greece and Ukraine


 


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