Description
How does the 1953 decolonisation of Greenland continue to play a role in contemporary Arctic orders? Drawing historical parallels to past U.S. interests in Greenland, this paper explores how Danish efforts during the 1950s came to redefine relations of decolonisation amidst the ‘age of decolonisation’ by integrating Greenland into the Danish Commonwealth. Rather than following the conventional decolonisation model marked by anti-colonial independence movements, Denmark pursued a strategy of ‘decolonisation-through-integration’, which preserved Danish sovereignty while incorporating Greenland as an ‘equal’ part of the kingdom. To do this, new and redefined racial structures were imposed. This integration was facilitated by U.S.-Danish imperial entanglements, especially the establishment of U.S. military bases in Greenland during and after World War II. The paper argues that this process of integration, rather than independence, constitutes a unique form of decolonisation, which was crucial for maintaining Denmark’s imperial control over Greenland. This paper seeks to contribute to ongoing debates within historical IR by complexifying key core concepts and theories of empire and colonialism by focusing on how Greenland’s integration into Denmark supports a broader theory of imperial sovereignty and world order. This will be put in context with what this paper terms ‘postcolonial hygge’.
