Arctic Geopolitics: Greenland as a Maritime Heartland and Axis of InternationalSecurity in the Reconfiguration of Global Power (2025-2026). An analysis of theislands geoeconomic relevance in the evolving context of emerging Arctic traderoutes.

Abstract

This article examines Greenland's transition from an insular periphery to its consolidation as the "Maritime Heartland" of the 21st century. The current international system paints a picture of saturated equatorial routes and a crisis in the traditional logistics model. The island emerges as the geographical pivot that allows NATO, under the strategic impetus of the United States and figures like President Donald J. Trump, to project absolute dominance over the Arctic. Through the theoretical lens of John Mearsheimer's Offensive Realism, the article analyzes Washington's urgency to secure this territorial asset in the face of the expansion of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, which seek to redefine the world order through the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and Polar Silk Road (PSR) projects. The research aims to demonstrate that Greenland has become the key to the North Atlantic, since “whoever possesses Greenland controls the North Atlantic” (James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy and first US Secretary of Defense, 1940). Similarly, the research is closely linked to the postulates of theorist Alfred Thayer Mahan, who asserted that control of maritime routes depends on the possession of decisive geographical positions. Greenland now stands as an asset of multidimensional value. Alfred Mahan emphasizes that control of strategic maritime points makes it possible to dominate major routes, with such possessions representing a decisive and concurrent factor in the current geopolitical context, manifested in Greenland's importance for controlling the North Atlantic. In addition to elevating its value to a geopolitical node, its geoeconomic and geocommercial reclassification not only alters the balance among the great powers but could also generate a geopolitical shift among the powers involved.