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Rasmus Leander Nielsen, Jeppe Strandsbjerg
This article traces the recent development of security and defence policy in Greenland. Although constitutionally, questions of security and defence have been for Denmark to decide, Greenland has recently begun to formulate its own security and defence policies, as part of its quest to secure international recognition as an actor in its own right, and to play a part in shaping, and benefitting from, vast increases in defence investments. Traditionally, Greenland has cleaved to a pacifist position, and has sought to keep the military presence in the Arctic to a minimum. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the threat of annexation following President Trump’s return to the White House, have raised the stakes over matters of Arctic security. As Greenland has demanded a greater say in negotiations with the Danish government over investments in security, defence policy has come to the fore in the domestic politics of Greenland itself. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘On Greenland’, edited by Tim Ingold.
25 September 2026
Lea Ypi, in conversation with Pablo Mukherjee
Can the memoir ask political questions that the academic monograph cannot? Can one research in archives and be mindful of the dignity of the lives being researched? Why do philosophers often turn to literature for answers? Lea Ypi looks back at her experience of writing two memoirs about her childhood and her family in Albania to offer her thoughts on these issues. Writing about her beloved grandmother, Ypi realises, allowed her to measure the tectonic movements of history that dramatically changed the shape of modern Albania. At the same time these memoirs are also a reckoning with herself—a diasporic academic weighing up the privileges and problems of being at home in the world. This article arises from a Lecture delivered on 17 September 2025.
25 September 2026
Oran R. Young
The geopolitical premises underlying recent arguments about the role of Greenland in world affairs do not align well with Arctic realities; some of the specific assertions appearing frequently in popular accounts are simply at odds with the facts. This does not mean that the place of the Arctic in international society is not changing or that Greenland is unimportant in the overall Arctic picture. But it does suggest that popular accounts of the role of Greenland are not helpful to those seeking to understand current developments in the Arctic and to address specific issues pertaining to Greenland. What is needed going forward is an effort to collaborate with Greenlandic leaders seeking to promote liberal values, rather than the promotion of outdated imperialistic practices bent upon the annexation of lands and peoples regardless of their desires. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘On Greenland’, edited by Tim Ingold.
25 September 2026
Lea Ypi, in conversation with Pablo Mukherjee
Can the memoir ask political questions that the academic monograph cannot? Can one research in archives and be mindful of the dignity of the lives being researched? Why do philosophers often turn to literature for answers? Lea Ypi looks back at her experience of writing two memoirs about her childhood and her family in Albania to offer her thoughts on these issues. Writing about her beloved grandmother, Ypi realises, allowed her to measure the tectonic movements of history that dramatically changed the shape of modern Albania. At the same time these memoirs are also a reckoning with herself—a diasporic academic weighing up the privileges and problems of being at home in the world. This article arises from a Lecture delivered on 17 September 2025.
25 September 2026
Oran R. Young
The geopolitical premises underlying recent arguments about the role of Greenland in world affairs do not align well with Arctic realities; some of the specific assertions appearing frequently in popular accounts are simply at odds with the facts. This does not mean that the place of the Arctic in international society is not changing or that Greenland is unimportant in the overall Arctic picture. But it does suggest that popular accounts of the role of Greenland are not helpful to those seeking to understand current developments in the Arctic and to address specific issues pertaining to Greenland. What is needed going forward is an effort to collaborate with Greenlandic leaders seeking to promote liberal values, rather than the promotion of outdated imperialistic practices bent upon the annexation of lands and peoples regardless of their desires. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘On Greenland’, edited by Tim Ingold.
25 September 2026
Mark Nuttall
Greenland is increasingly described through geopolitical, extractive, and climate science framings: as ice sheet, strategic space, mineral frontier, and planetary climate barometer. This article argues that such external narratives obscure Kalaallit Nunaat as an Indigenous homeland and self-governing political community. Drawing on the case of Pikialasorsuaq, the North Water polynya between northwest Greenland and Nunavut, the article points to the importance of reframing Greenlandic sovereignty, environmental protection, and geopolitics through land–sea–ice relations. Climate-driven changes in sea ice reshape mobility, risk, and anticipatory knowledge, while also opening the region to increased shipping, resource exploration, tourism, and strategic attention. Inuit-led initiatives for ecosystem management around Pikialasorsuaq demonstrate that conservation and environmental protection are not matters of bounded territory or external expertise, but practices of stewardship, mobility, and food security. This article is published in the Thematic Collection ‘On Greenland’, edited by Tim Ingold.
25 September 2026
Tim Ingold
What the atlas calls Greenland is a country known to its Indigenous people as Kalaallit Nunaat, ‘lands of the Kalaallit’. But these names carry very different meanings: the first embedded in a history of colonisation; the second in practices of habitation. The incommensurability between these meanings poses a dilemma for today’s Kalaallit, faced with both the toxic legacy of Danish colonisation and the desire for their country to make its way in the family of nations. The professed desire of US President Trump to annex Greenland has brought this dilemma to a head. Where much of Europe has leapt to Denmark’s defence, in Kalaallit Nunaat the response has been more nuanced. Introducing the thematic collection, ‘On Greenland’, this article asks: can Kalaallit regain sovereignty over their lands and stories on their own terms?
25 September 2026