The conclusion to the dizzying odyssey over Greenland this week reminded me a little of the ending of the “Wizard of Oz.” If you recall, Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Lion and the Tin Man finish a great and frightful quest only to discover they already had what they sought on the quest all along: brains, courage, heart, and the means to get back to Kansas.

Similarly, President Trump has concluded that he can get what he wants out of Greenland through the security arrangements that already exist rather than buying or taking over the country.

That’s because the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark (which includes Greenland as an autonomous territory) already share joint responsibility for the defense of the area.

The focal point of that joint effort is Pituffik Space Force Base, which is operationally controlled and managed by the U.S. Space Force out of Colorado Springs.

Pituffik is the U.S. Department of Defense’s northernmost installation, 900 miles above the Arctic Circle in Santa Claus country, where temperatures drop to 50 below zero and winds howl at 150 mph. It is strategically located for missile warning, satellite tracking and Arctic operations, as well as support of scientific research.

The base was originally built to position U.S. bombers closer to Russia during the Cold War.

It operates under a 1951 defense treaty between the U.S. and Denmark that gives the United States sweeping military access in Greenland. The treaty was updated in 2004 to include Greenland’s participation, and under this framework, both the American and Danish flags fly over the installation to represent joint responsibility for the island’s defense within NATO.

While Greenland retains sovereignty over the territory, the 1951 agreement provides the United States “exclusive jurisdiction” over its military personnel and “unrestricted freedom of operation” within the designated defense area.

The agreement also allows the U.S. to expand its footprint “to construct, install, maintain and operate” military bases across Greenland, “station and house personnel,” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft and waterborne craft.”

This includes building and operating communications and meteorological facilities, and operating the bases’ logistical and security functions.

These rights are framed by NATO obligations, not as a transfer of territory or sovereign control to the United States. The U.S. cannot arbitrarily expand its presence beyond what Denmark and Greenland agree to.

The agreement remains in force as long as both Denmark and the U.S. remain in NATO.

“The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants,” Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen, told The New York Times.

“I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted,” he said, adding, “if it just asked nicely.”

Just a few days ago, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen cited the 1951 agreement, saying, “We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland.”

At Davos, Trump announced a new “framework” reached with NATO toward cooperation on Arctic defense that does not include U.S. sovereignty over Greenland.

The framework is still in flux, but Danish and NATO diplomats had already signaled they were ready to address Trump’s grievances by expanding the presence of U.S. troops or bases in Greenland under the treaty and increasing European efforts to boost security around the Arctic.

Among the new proposals is to create a new NATO mission dubbed Arctic Sentry; expand the 1951 pact with a new agreement that would effectively create pockets of American soil in the territory; and restrict non-NATO member countries, particularly Russia and China, from obtaining rights to mine the rare-earth minerals in Greenland.

China has been seeking to establish mining interests in Greenland and the Arctic as part of its Polar Silk Road initiative.

More specific negotiations between Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. will aim to ensure “that Russia and China never gain a foothold — economically or militarily — in Greenland,” a NATO spokesman told The Wall Street Journal.

Cooperation, not coercion

In other words, the U.S. already has wide latitude to strengthen NATO defenses against Russian and Chinese encroachments in the Arctic as long as it does so through cooperation rather than coercion.

Interestingly, the U.S. military has been one of the strongest advocates of cooperation rather than coercion in recent years, paying tribute to Greenland’s crucial role in the security partnership.

In 2023, the base was renamed from Thule Air Base to Pituffik Space Base to reflect its role under the U.S. Space Force and to acknowledge local Greenlandic heritage.

Chief of space operations, U.S. Space Force Gen. Chance Saltzman, in his remarks as the presiding official that day, emphasized the importance of the military’s partnership with Greenland. “This renaming represents our wish to celebrate and acknowledge the rich cultural heritage of Greenland and its people and how important they are to the sustainment of this installation against the harsh environment north of the Arctic Circle.”

According to a report by Space Force journalists, Saltzman said that “Together, the men and women of Pituffik Space Base and our Greenlandic and Danish partners will ensure a safe, secure and prosperous future both in space and above the Arctic Circle.”

Colorado connections

Trump himself recently moved responsibility for Pituffik from the European Command to Northern Command, which is based in Colorado Springs. Any U.S. military expansion in Greenland will now be overseen by NORTHCOM.

So you might say, Greenland is now Colorado’s problem. And that’s a good thing.

Peterson Space Force Base in the Springs is the headquarters of Space Base Delta 1, the Space Force unit responsible for base support across multiple installations — including Pituffik Space Base.

Space Base Delta 1 provides “base operating support, logistics, security and sustainment” to Pituffik and several other Space Force locations around the world.

This means Pituffik’s personnel and missions, although geographically remote, are administratively and operationally tied to Peterson through the same delta command.

Also, the 12th Space Warning Squadron, responsible for operating the Upgraded Early Warning Radar at Pituffik, is part of an integrated warning network tied back to U.S. Space Force units headquartered at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora. In practical terms, Buckley’s units help process and relay missile warning information from the Arctic region (including Greenland) to higher command authorities like NORAD.

Chinese and Russian threats in the Arctic are real, but the U.S. military is still the institution, working in concert with Greenland and Denmark, that is best equipped to address those threats.

And given the extraordinary competence the military has shown recently in Iran and Venezuela for President Trump, let’s hope the man behind the curtain recognizes that military competence is also the solution to Greenland he has sought all along.