


Thanks to Greenland and Trump, Compacts of Free Association are huge now.
There was nothing subtle about it. Subtlety is not his talent.
“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” he said in the run-up to taking office, adding that there were Chinese and Russian ships, that Greenland should vote to enter the United States, and that nobody really knows if Denmark has any right, title or interest in the island. That last one is an odd criticism of the right of conquest for someone who appears ready to use it.
As the inauguration looms without any further clarity on what U.S. policy might be (an invasion, economic stifling, some sort of treaty, buying it?), the question of what greater U.S. control of Greenland would look like have many looking to America’s extended back yard known as the Pacific and the alliances of associated states.
And so, Compacts of Free Association are all the rage now. Or at least all the awareness.
The Wall Street Journal is talking about them. So is The National Interest. Even the Atlantic Council and social media twitterites have taken notice.
Last year, if you had told me that The Wall Street Journal would be talking about Compacts of Free Association, I would have said the editorial board had lost its collective mind. Either that or I would have asked if China had invaded one.
A convenient way for the compactor to gain a bigger footprint and unfettered—well, less fettered—access for its military, while the compactee gets money called “development assistance,” the compacts are just as associated with daily flights out, greater access to a fawning international community (whatever that is) and its international development industry ready to overlook internal corruption.
I compared Greenland to Chuuk in these pages not too long ago. Two islands itching for full independence, Chuuk from the Federated States of Micronesia, Greenland from Denmark, both being courted by nations hostile to the less-than-ideal status quo, and two islands that in all likelihood could not function as independent nations.
While it might not seem like an important distinction, an agreement for free association is not a territorial acquisition; it creates a “state” in the international order, hence a state that is freely associated. And the hallmark of these agreements, which are not quite treaties and not quite contracts, is military access for the U.S. and open immigration for the citizens of the associated state.
The experience of the Pacific has been that of migration out of the country and importation of labor and talent. Which is to say, the inward migration of those who make it function as a society, if barely. Coupled, of course, with ample use of the word “colonial” when the other side of the equation—military rights, which are the reason for being of such an arrangement—comes into play.
But they are nonetheless republics in the international order, even if in name only.
The autonomous territory of Greenland already has a military treaty with the U.S. dating to the 1940s, complete with an intact base that injects huge amounts of cash into its economy. Despite Donny Jr. touching down in Nuuk in Trump Force One to pass out red MAGA hats, much like Micronesia, Greenland’s exports are mostly fish. And like Micronesia, what mineral wealth it may have is largely untouchable; Micronesia’s resources are under the seabed, Greenland’s are largely above the Arctic Circle.
Are Greenlanders interested in exchanging a Danish umbrella for an American one?
Perhaps there’s a different objective? Driving a wedge into NATO? I’m not the one to answer that question.
What has been the impact of the compacts? Perhaps we should ask those in Guam and Hawaii. Then ask what Micronesians think of the state of development of their own nations.
Maybe it all started with the inevitable – and inevitably disastrous – the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. After spending billions of dollars, losing countless lives, the country immediately picked back up where it was in 2001 under Taliban control with nothing to show for 20 years of American attempts.
What were the options? Permanent occupation? A colony?
Create a vassal state?
It’s really an ancient form. Pay tribute to the emperor in exchange for protection. Become a junior state to a powerful nation. You keep the right to self-govern internal politics while the lord sees to your military and foreign affairs.
It’s called a suzerain.
As between Greenlandic independence and Chuukeese, Chuuk currently presents the thornier question for America. While the independence referendum is on hold, rest assured the topic will be resurrected. More direct access to China, dissecting a nation borne from American tutelage.
Maybe I should be embarrassed that I repeatedly call COFA a diplomatic afterthought. I also said sugar cookies were Denmark’s greatest export.
We’ll see what the new administration brings, but until then I’ll be rereading the insular cases. While many in international development wring their hands obsessing over colonialism, Trump looks to be embracing it.
Gabriel McCoard is an attorney who previously worked in Palau and Chuuk State. Send feedback to gabrieljmccoard@hotmail.com.
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