Professor Emeritus William C. Banks on U.S. Acquiring Greenland “Clashes with Denmark and the EU Would be Legion”

Professor of Law Emeritus William C. Banks spoke with Newsweek for the story “Greenland as 51st state: What U.S. taking over Arctic island could look like”.

Banks, who specializes in national security law, called the idea of Greenland becoming a U.S. state “almost surely a pipe dream of Trump.” “Greenland would have to request statehood, itself a ridiculously remote prospect. Clashes with Denmark and the EU would be legion, and if the U.S. attempted to take Greenland by force, it would be waging an unlawful war.”

“Hypothetically,” for Greenland to become a state, Banks says, “Congress would have to enact a statute admitting Greenland (to the U.S.) and the president would then sign the bill, making it a law and adding Greenland. If the people and government of Greenland/Denmark remain opposed, it is hard to see how governance as a state could work.”