Greenlands White Gold and Trumps Greenland Policy

Gorm Winther 

 Beyond Greenland's White Gold 

Beneath the Veil: Danish Colonial Legacy and Trump's Arctic Strategy in Greenland
Order: Agio Publishers/Bookmondo (124 pages)

e-book:  Euro, €20,78 (PDF)

Paperback upcoming

 Human Security Through the New Traditional Economy in the Arctic 

Routledge Publishers 2025, (328 pages) Beyond

e-book: Euro, € 41.24 

hardback: Euro, € 140

Table of Contents 

 I. Introduction 

 Greenland's White Gold

American intermezzo 

 II. Colonialism and Imperialism 

 Exploitation and Capital Exports in Imperialism 

 Classical Theories on Imperialism 

 Condign, Compensatory, and Conditioned Power 

 Colonialism 

 Dependency Theory 

 Frank's Dependency Theory 

 Amin's Theory of Dependence 

 Emmanuel's theory of the unequal exchange Baran's Theory on Growth 

Newer theories, Hardt and Negri's Empire Theories in a Greenlandic context. 

 The New Traditional Economy.

III. The Cryolite Quarry in Ivittuut  

The Period After the Second World War Colonialism and Imperialism in Greenland? The Large Greenlandic Cooperative 

Cryolite Profits in Kjeldsens Cookies? Dependency Theory and the Debate on Imperialism in a Greenlandic Context 

IV. Theory of Imperialism and Redistributive Politics? 

V. The Black Angel Mine (Den Sorte Engel) 

VI. The Nalunaq mine 

VII. Has Imperialism underdeveloped the Arctic regions? 

VII. Greenland as part of the United States? 

Was the former Self-government coalition? a thorn in the side of the United States? 

Balkanization and the Russian Arctic? 

From one Dependence to Another! 

The Imperialism Curve Imperialism in the Western Arctic Regions 

 VIII. Resume and Conclusions Bibliography and Index.

Donald Trump's attempt to take Greenland shows how both U.S. imperialism and Danish paternalist colonialism limit small nations struggling for real independence. If implemented, economic self-reliance and political independence coincide with imperialism and colonialism. 

 Greenland's White Gold 

Following the Second World War, Danish colonialism in Greenland shifted toward a form of hegemony. Despite apparent changes, this transformation left the Inuit population in a position of dependency, relegating them to the periphery of the broader economic and political structures dominated by Denmark. One of the most notable examples of this dynamic was the cryolite quarry at Ivittuut, which operated from 1854 to 1987. During its years of operation, vast quantities of raw material were exported abroad. However, the true impact is seen in the monetary flow analysis: nearly all value added—wages, profits, interest, and depreciation—flowed out of Greenland to Denmark or to Danes residing in Greenland. Rather than representing a closed chapter in history, these extraction and transfer patterns have persisted, continuing to influence Greenland's economic and political landscape. 

 The continued significance of these patterns became evident in early 2025, when the Danish Radio's documentary "Greenland's White Gold" brought renewed public attention to the cryolite mining case. The documentary highlighted the enduring legacy of colonial exploitation, focusing on capital exports and income transfers that benefited Danish employees, investors, and business owners at the expense of local Greenlandic development. This event emphasized how historical resource extraction and value outflows remain central to understanding the current realities in Greenland. 

US Ambitions and Renewed International Scrutiny 

 At the same time, a high-profile visit by Donald Trump Jr. to Nuuk reignited international debate over U.S. ambitions in the Arctic. Statements from the Trump administration regarding Greenland's strategic importance revealed that, even today, Western powers continue to view Greenland through the lens of unilateralism and imperialism. This perspective frames Greenland as a base from which to exploit local labor and seize resources, reflecting a broader pattern of Western imperialist interest in the Arctic. 

Challenges to Sovereignty and Self-Determination 

 Against this backdrop, both Inuit and Danish Greenlanders face the twin pressures of ongoing Danish control and growing U.S. imperialist aspirations. These pressures highlight a crucial reality: formal sovereignty does not guarantee genuine independence. Instead, Greenland remains caught in a web of external dominance, where political and economic self-determination is constrained by the interests and strategies of more powerful center economies. While independence is viewed as essential for postcolonial growth, it is often constrained by global political systems. Thus, debates over Greenlandic sovereignty are interconnected with issues of strategic reliance, great power competition, and the persistent security concerns in the Arctic. 

Envisioning a New Path: The Potential of a New Traditional Economy 

 Despite these challenges, there is hope for a different future. Recent scholarship, including Winther's latest books and articles, points to the promise of developing a "new traditional economy" for Greenland and the broader Arctic. This approach is rooted in principles of local participation, democratic ownership, and protection from external control. Unlike the old model of dependency or the state-centric approach of "Etatism," the new traditional economy emphasizes self-management, local decision-making, and the creation of adequate supporting structures. Such an economic model already has a presence in Arctic Canadian regions like Nunatsiavut, Nunavut, and Nunavik, where it fosters peace, economic independence, and social resilience. 

Toward Meaningful Self-Governance 

By combining insights from history, geopolitics, and innovative economic thought, this vision challenges Greenland and other Arctic regions to reconsider the meaning of sovereignty, the enduring impact of colonial legacies, and the possibilities for locally grounded economic and political autonomy. Pursuing a new traditional economy offers a path toward meaningful self-governance—one that does not merely replace one form of dependency with another but instead builds the foundation for true independence and self-determination in a world still dominated by powers entrenched in economic imperialism.

Author Biography 

 Gorm Winther, MSc in Economics, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Aalborg University and a former faculty member of Greenland University. A highly respected international scholar and consultant, he has dedicated over four decades to advancing research on social, economic, and political development in Greenland and the Arctic. His work is widely recognized for its depth, rigor, and practical impact. 

 He has led major international research initiatives, including the consortium on the project Political Economy of Northern Regional Development (POENOR), and served as Project Leader and Consultant for the SEPA project (Human Security, Models of Codetermination, and Arctic Peoples' Participation in Decision-Making). His expertise has guided local governments, municipalities, and corporations, including the Greenland Home Rule Government, multiple Greenlandic municipalities, Tele Greenland Inc., the Greenland Trade Union, the Canadian mining company Crew Corporation, and the North Atlantic Group (Greenland and the Faroe Islands) in the Danish Parliament. 

An influential thought leader, he has contributed to international expert groups on Arctic Economies and Livelihoods and helped develop innovative online curricula at Finland's University of the Arctic. He chaired the Working Group on Sustainable and Economic Development under ICARP II for the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and led the Danish Power and Democracy Project (Magtudredningen), demonstrating his expertise in governance, policy, and participatory decision-making. He also served on the Committee for Development and Economy under the Greenland Self-Government Commission. 

Earlier in his career, he was Course Director and resource person for the Participation, Workers' Control, Workers' Self-Management program and the Economy and Democracy program at the Interuniversity Centre of Postgraduate Studies in Dubrovnik (1984–1999). 

He was a Visiting Researcher at Cornell University's Department of Economics twice in 1984/85 and 1990/91. From 1998 to 2015, he served on the Board of the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership in Brussels, where he is now an Honorary Member, reflecting his lifelong commitment to advancing Business democracy, employee ownership, cooperatives, workers' self-management, and economic and social development across the U.S., Europe, Denmark, Yugoslavia, and the Arctic.