For the first time, Denmark has identified the United States as a potential security threat in an annual assessment. The report was submitted by one of the country’s security agencies on Wednesday (10th December). The Danish Defence Intelligence Service is one of the Nordic country’s two main espionage organisations. The development is reportedly proof of the increasingly tense transatlantic partnership between the United States and Europe.
The national security of Denmark and the larger European region has been deemed to be under likely threat from the United States. The report emphasised the Trump administration’s seeming inclination to employ pressure alongside economic and military coercion “to enforce its will,” even against partners. The report conveyed, “The world’s great powers are increasingly prioritising their own interests and use force to achieve their goals.”
China and Russia are also named by the security agency. However, it also made the unprecedented decision to single out the United States over “uncertainty” on “the role of the United States as a guarantor of European security,” owing to the rising US focus on China. The report highlighted Trump’s tariffs, Washington’s increased engagement in the Arctic and expressed many of the similar worries expressed by European leaders on the course of President Donald Trump’s America-first foreign policy.
It outlined, “The United States uses economic power, including in the form of threats of high tariffs, to enforce its will and no longer excludes the use of military force even against allies.”
Interestingly, in its recent national security policy paper, the Trump administration warned that Europe faced the “stark prospect of civilisational erasure” and urged European countries to assume “primary responsibility” for their own defence. It even stated that by endorsing political parties that oppose immigration and advance nationalism, the US should be “cultivating resistance” throughout Europe.
On the other hand, Trump has frequently voiced his desire to take over Greenland, which caused diplomatic challenges between Washington and Copenhagen. The Danish kingdom includes the strategically significant Artic region. Meanwhile, the US president has not ruled out deploying military force to seize the world’s largest island. Furthermore, Denmark is one of the European countries who oppose a White House peace plan for Ukraine because it supposedly favours Russia on important issues.
