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‘Trumping’ the Danish Self-Image: Danish Ontological Security and Colonial Complicity in the Geopolitical Contest over Greenland

Vaupel, Luna Dybdahl LU (2026) SIMZ31 20261
Master of Science in Development Studies
Abstract (Swedish)
As Trump's pursuit of Greenland escalated throughout 2025 and into 2026, the Danish
government has faced mounting pressure to justify its authority over the territory, both
on the international stage and within its domestic sphere. This thesis examines how
Danish officials discursively construct and legitimize that authority in response to
repeated threats from Trump. Drawing on Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA) as its primary methodological framework and ontological security theory as its
main theoretical lens this thesis analyses two data categories of official political Danish
discourse, official speeches and statements by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
responding directly to Trump on an international stage, and... (More)
As Trump's pursuit of Greenland escalated throughout 2025 and into 2026, the Danish
government has faced mounting pressure to justify its authority over the territory, both
on the international stage and within its domestic sphere. This thesis examines how
Danish officials discursively construct and legitimize that authority in response to
repeated threats from Trump. Drawing on Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA) as its primary methodological framework and ontological security theory as its
main theoretical lens this thesis analyses two data categories of official political Danish
discourse, official speeches and statements by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
responding directly to Trump on an international stage, and new policy initiatives and
symbolic governance text addressing the Danish-Greenlandic relationship within a
domestic framework. The analysis finds that Danish legitimisation operates through an
external and internal level, where externally Denmark is constructed as a rational,
democratic rule-based actor, in line with literature on Nordic exceptionalism. Internally,
the narrative of shared history and collective belonging reinforces emotional
attachment and produces a shared identity. Understood through a lens of ontological
security, both levels are attempts to stabilize the Danish ontological security at a
geopolitical moment of crisis, where an established biographical narrative is being
challenged. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Vaupel, Luna Dybdahl LU
supervisor
organization
course
SIMZ31 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
critical discourse analysis, ontological security, Greenland, Denmark, national identity, postcolonialism, Nordic exceptionalism, legitimisation
language
English
id
9226592
date added to LUP
2026-06-25 10:27:37
date last changed
2026-06-25 10:27:37
@misc{9226592,
  abstract     = {{As Trump's pursuit of Greenland escalated throughout 2025 and into 2026, the Danish
government has faced mounting pressure to justify its authority over the territory, both
on the international stage and within its domestic sphere. This thesis examines how
Danish officials discursively construct and legitimize that authority in response to
repeated threats from Trump. Drawing on Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis
(CDA) as its primary methodological framework and ontological security theory as its
main theoretical lens this thesis analyses two data categories of official political Danish
discourse, official speeches and statements by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen
responding directly to Trump on an international stage, and new policy initiatives and
symbolic governance text addressing the Danish-Greenlandic relationship within a
domestic framework. The analysis finds that Danish legitimisation operates through an
external and internal level, where externally Denmark is constructed as a rational,
democratic rule-based actor, in line with literature on Nordic exceptionalism. Internally,
the narrative of shared history and collective belonging reinforces emotional
attachment and produces a shared identity. Understood through a lens of ontological
security, both levels are attempts to stabilize the Danish ontological security at a
geopolitical moment of crisis, where an established biographical narrative is being
challenged.}},
  author       = {{Vaupel, Luna Dybdahl}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{‘Trumping’ the Danish Self-Image: Danish Ontological Security and Colonial Complicity in the Geopolitical Contest over Greenland}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}