President-elect Donald Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland is certainly understandable. The “gateway to the Arctic” and location of the Thule Air Base—now Pituffic Space Base—has great strategic value from a U.S. national security standpoint. It may also have prodigious untapped mineral reserves.
This led Rep. Andy Ogles, Tennessee Republican, to introduce the “Make Greenland Great Again” bill, which would give Mr. Trump the authority to negotiate with Denmark. But if the U.S. were to actually acquire Greenland, which has fiercely resisted the idea, we would want to ensure it does not automatically become a state in the process.
Why? Because making Greenland a state would actually impede the sort of cooperation that would benefit both the world’s largest island and the United States. Plus, it would provide an advantage to only one side of the…
