This week, three separate developments highlighted a more assertive U.S. posture toward strategic control, energy security, and geopolitical risk.
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In Venezuela, the U.S. continues to consolidate the aftermath of its early-January operation that removed President Nicolás Maduro. Naval enforcement and tanker interdictions in the Caribbean have followed, signaling tighter U.S. oversight of energy flows and shipping routes in the Western Hemisphere.
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In Iran, protests have intensified and spread across major cities, raising the possibility of deeper political instability. President Donald Trump has publicly warned that the U.S. could strike Iranian targets if the regime escalates violence against protesters, and U.S. officials have confirmed that military options are under review — developments markets are watching closely given Iran’s role in global energy supply and regional stability.
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At the same time, Trump escalated rhetoric around Greenland, renewing his long-standing push to bring the island under U.S. control to counter perceived Russian and Chinese influence. Administration officials have discussed a range of options — from lump-sum payments to residents to encourage secession from Denmark, to the use of the U.S. military as an option for acquiring the territory — though Denmark and Greenlandic leaders have firmly rejected any change in sovereignty.
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Viewed together, these developments point to a common theme: energy, materials, and strategic location are increasingly being treated as security issues, not just diplomatic ones.

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Why Greenland Matters — Geography, Materials, and Water

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Greenland’s importance rests on three pillars: location, materials, and water.

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Geography.
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Greenland sits between North America and the Arctic, placing it at the center of missile-warning systems, space surveillance, and monitoring of North Atlantic and emerging Arctic shipping routes. As ice continues to retreat, both commercial and military traffic through the Arctic are expected to increase. The U.S. already operates from Pituffik Space Base, which plays a key role in early warning and space monitoring.

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Materials.
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Greenland holds deposits of rare earth elements, uranium, and iron ore, all of which align with current U.S. supply-chain vulnerabilities:
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• Rare earths are critical for magnets used in EVs, wind turbines, semiconductors, radar systems, and missile guidance. China dominates global processing.
• Uranium supports nuclear power and fuel cycles, which are increasingly viewed as essential for grid reliability as electricity demand rises from AI and data-center expansion.
• Iron ore underpins steel production, which remains foundational for defense manufacturing, shipbuilding, infrastructure, and energy projects.

In an environment where export controls and trade restrictions can disrupt supply chains quickly, access to these materials has shifted from a cost issue to a national-security concern.
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Water — an emerging AI constraint.
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Greenland also contains one of the world’s largest freshwater reserves, stored in its ice sheet. As AI infrastructure scales, water availability is becoming a more visible constraint.
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Modern data centers require large amounts of freshwater for cooling. When accounting for on-site cooling and the water used by power plants supplying electricity, each AI query indirectly consumes an estimated 1–3 bottles of freshwater. As AI workloads grow, water is increasingly treated as a limiting input alongside power and land.
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This is already driving long-term capital spending on water treatment, cooling systems, and metering infrastructure, reflecting expectations that AI growth will materially increase water demand over time.

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