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I recently wrote [ [link removed] ] about Canada’s military preparing for a possible war with the United States. I suggested we might make sense of the seemingly shocking headline as an effort for global elites in Canada to bolster support for their diversification agenda.
Efforts such as these are fundamentally oriented towards maintaining the status quo…a status quo which…drumroll please…keeps them in charge. Worse than keeping them in charge, many of the policies they promote hurt the very people they claim to represent. They implement policies that they themselves refuse to follow in a quest to stay in charge. As a case in point, consider Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s climate agenda. Why shouldn’t Canada develop its amazing endowment of hydrocarbon resources? Doing so would increase growth, generate jobs, and lower inflation—a genuine benefit to most Canadians. It could also make the world safer as it lowers the much-needed oil revenues for Putin and the Iranian regime.
Carney’s recent trip [ [link removed] ] to China captures this hypocrisy perfectly. Almost all Canadians know the United States is not a military threat. Almost all Canadians know that China is growing their carbon emissions faster than anyone else. And almost all Canadians know that the Middle Kingdom regularly uses coercive, violent means to control their own people. Yet Carney is trying to diversify away from America towards China? To put Canada first, Carney should deepen, not diversify, the country’s relationship with the United States. Focusing on the supposed threat from the United States is distracting and deflects attention from the real threat.
The global grandstanding for the benefit of elites and the status quo was on full display again this week in Greenland. In response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing focus on Greenland, Denmark increased its military presence [ [link removed] ] on the semiautonomous island, so as to defend it from…a U.S. invasion. This is kabuki theater at its finest.
Desperate to appear relevant, other European nations quickly announced that they, too, would send reinforcements [ [link removed] ]. It’s nice to see the European members of NATO finally take military action, I suppose. But you don’t have to go too deep into these news articles to find out exactly how unserious these deployments are, however. France sent 15 personnel; Germany sent 13; Sweden sent 3; Norway sent two; and Britain sent…one [ [link removed] ]. And they are not going to be there for very long either; it is only going to be a quick two-day mission. Not exactly the Normandy Landings [ [link removed] ]… By the time you read this, the European defense of Greenland may be over.
Greenland occupies an increasingly strategic geography on the planet, and Europe is right to suggest it needs defending. But the main threat, it may shock you, is not America. Could empty European posturing against a faux military threat (with a handful of symbolic deployments) be an attempt for the Danes to gain headlines ahead of this week’s gatherings in Davos [ [link removed] ]? After all, while beating their chests against America, Europe remains feckless in the face of Chinese and Russian aggression. Just as with Canada, focusing on the supposed threat from America misses the real threat.
Back in his real estate days, Trump always started negotiations by threatening to sue everyone. This is nothing more than initial positioning with which to leverage a deal. As I’ve often said, leaders around the world should take him seriously, but not literally. Taking him literally, but not seriously, is a recipe for misinterpretation and confusion. Trump should be taken as deadly serious when he highlights the strategic importance of the Arctic and the threat of Russia and China in that domain. As noted by Michael Kao , let’s not confuse Trump’s methods with the significance of the issues.
Rather than empty rhetoric and symbolic gestures, Europeans should increase their defense spending and meet their NATO obligations. They should beef up their militaries and get serious about defending the European Arctic, as this area will surely be a crucial battlefield of the 21st century. And they need to stop the status quo, elite-driven, blatant hypocrisy. Don’t forget that despite their kicking and screaming about the Russo-Ukrainian War, they have given more money to Russia in the form of energy revenue than they have given to the Ukrainians in aid [ [link removed] ].
Finally, Greenland, Denmark, and the rest of Europe (as well as Canada) have to wake up to the true threats to their national security and risks in the Arctic. It’s easy to poke the American eagle in the eye because they know Uncle Sam won’t poke back; yet they’d never dare prod the Chinese Dragon or its comrade the Russian Bear because they know there will be repercussions.
The world is rapidly bifurcating into two political and economic ecosystems – one led by the United States and the other led by the Chinese. Sooner or later, everyone is going to have to pick a side.
VIKRAM MANSHARAMANI is an entrepreneur, consultant, scholar, neighbor, husband, father, volunteer, and professional generalist who thinks in multiple-dimensions and looks beyond the short-term. Self-taught to think around corners and connect original dots, he spends his time speaking with global leaders in business, government, academia, and journalism. He’s currently the Chairman and CEO of Goodwell Foods, a manufacturer of private label frozen pizza. LinkedIn has twice listed him as its #1 Top Voice in Money & Finance, and Worthprofiled him as one of the 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. Vikram earned a PhD From MIT, has taught at Yale and Harvard, and is the author of three books, The Making of a Generalist: An Independent Thinker Finds Unconventional Success in an Uncertain World [ [link removed] ], Think for Yourself: Restoring Common Sense in an Age of Experts and Artificial Intelligence [ [link removed] ] and Boombustology: Spotting Financial Bubbles Before They Burst [ [link removed] ]. Vikram lives in Lincoln, New Hampshire with his wife and two children, where they can usually be found hiking or skiing.
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