President Donald John Trump‘s populist and nationalistic rhetoric can be considered as a fine example of the US’ imperialist ambitions. One can find various manifestations of imperialism in the pages of history books. The main aim of the Roman, Mauryan, Mughal, British or Dutch Imperialism was to establish military, as well as social, supremacy over the conquered nations. They used to occupy territories of other states in order to boost their respective national glory. Imperialism also helped the colonial masters to strengthen the economy through foreign investment. Such a tendency still exists.

President Trump wants to seize territories from Canada to the Panama Canal and also Greenland only to boost the US economy. Washington DC is well aware of the huge economic potential of Greenland. As expected, the island nation is in a real crisis. At a time when the melting of ice sheets (because of Global Warming) triggers natural disasters, like rise in sea levels; the US plans to increase its influence in the Arctic Region. Not a single country really wants to protect nature in the 21st Century. Instead, they only concentrate on increasing their military might and wealth.

According to Marxist thought, the roots of imperialism can be found in the economic system. Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov; April 22, 1870 – January 21, 1924) described imperialism as the highest stage of monopoly capitalism, stating that imperialism was a transitional period in which monopolies and cartels dominated the economy. Of course, movements against imperialism took place in the Third World as a number of countries in Asia and Africa gained independence in the 19th and 20th Centuries. It may be noted that Mette Frederiksen, the Prime Minister of Denmark, called President Trump’s idea of buying the island “absurd” in 2019, stressing: “The President must be joking.“

Imperialists often resort to neo-colonialism and invent new strategies to gain control of foreign territories. Francis Kwame Nkrumah (September 21, 1909 – April 27, 1972), the former President of Ghana, once said: “The imperialists of today endeavour to achieve their ends not merely by military means, but by economic penetration, cultural assimilation, ideological domination, psychological infiltration and subversive media propaganda.” (‘I Speak of Freedom‘, 1961) Greenland is no exception. As Denmark is a NATO ally of the US, President Trump has made an attempt to justify the need for an active presence of the US forces in Greenland in the pretext of sensitive issues, such as defence or security.

As far as human civilisation is concerned, the aggressive greed of human beings is gradually pushing the entire world towards an inevitable outcome. Unfortunately, the thinking persons have become helpless spectators in the contemporary world. It seems that the global community has collectively acknowledged its subjugation to an irresistible dynamics which is not at all dependent on a single individual or a collective political leadership that makes political decisions in different parts of the globe.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das