In January, President Trump reignited global attention on Greenland by publicly pushing for U.S. control of the semiautonomous Danish territory as part of the administration's framing of Greenland's strategic importance in countering Russia and China. The U.S. government threatened to use military force and impose tariffs on eight European NATO allies in response to their opposition, including France, Germany, and the U.K. These developments prompted formal Arctic security talks between U.S., Danish, and Greenlandic officials, even as Copenhagen, Nuuk, and other European capitals uniformly reject any transfer of sovereignty, underscoring tensions within longstanding defense partnerships.

The Pacific Council invites you to dial in on Thursday, March 19, at 10 am PT to explore these recent developments and discuss their broader implications for Greenlandic national security and the United States' diplomatic relations within Europe. Members will hear from Dr. Esther Brimmer, the James H. Binger Senior Fellow in global governance at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Dr. Justina Budginaite-Froehly, a Nonresident Senior Fellow of the Europe Center and the Transatlantic Security Initiative within the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Why it's important:

• Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark announced that snap parliamentary elections would be held in March of this year, pledging to secure the future of the commonwealth, a move some believe is a response to her standoff with President Trump. 
• Greenland's proposed foreign investment screening laws are set to be pushed through in April, in response to increased interest from U.S. buyers in purchasing Greenlandic properties.   
• President Trump announced that the U.S. would be sending a hospital ship to Greenland, alleging that the citizens of Greenland are experiencing mass illness and are in need of medical care. 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Esther D. Brimmer is the James H. Binger senior fellow in global governance at the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR). She is writing a book on the need for better governance mechanisms to manage expanding human activities in outer space. Most recently, she served as project director for CFR’s new task force report Securing Space: A Plan for U.S. Action. Previously she served as project director for a different CFR task force report titled Arctic Imperatives: Reinforcing U.S. Strategy on America’s Fourth Coast. Her career spans service in government as a senior official, as a CEO, and as a faculty member at leading universities. She led U.S. policy in international organizations as the assistant secretary of state for International Organization Affairs. Earlier she served on the State Department’s policy planning staff. Brimmer was executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. She was the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro professor at the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. She was the first deputy director and director of research at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. Brimmer has served in the private sector as a senior advisor at McLarty Associates, and earlier as an associate at McKinsey & Company. Early in her career, she was a senior associate at the Carnegie commission on preventing deadly conflict. Brimmer received her bachelor’s degree from Pomona College and master’s degree and doctorate from Oxford University.

Guest Speaker 

Dr. Justina Budginaite-Froehly is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center and Transatlantic Security Initiative within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Her professional focus is on security and defense-related issues, including defense industrial developments, military mobility, and energy security in Europe.

Budginaite-Froehly previously worked at the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Lithuania in the Defense Policy Planning Department. Her work focused on energy and cybersecurity and was shaped by the preparations for the country’s first presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) in 2013. She also worked for the German government consultancy Berlin Economics. She was responsible for the Belarus portfolio of the German Economic Team project, where she provided in-depth analysis of geoeconomic developments in the EU’s immediate neighborhood.

Budginaite-Froehly has written numerous publications on the security and defense policies of the Baltic states and Euro-Atlantic security issues for international think tanks.

Budginaite-Froehly holds a PhD from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany. Her doctoral thesis analyzed Lithuania’s energy security strategy in the EU and NATO. She holds an MA in peace and security studies from the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg and a BA in political science from the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University.

Budginaite-Froehly is a Lithuanian national based in Washington, DC. She has lived in Berlin, Hamburg, Warsaw, Vienna, and Moscow. Budginaite-Froehly speaks Lithuanian, English, German, and Russian.

 

To register for this webinar, visit the Zoom Registration Page.