SDG News, January 2026 — As 2026 begins, the international order anchored for decades in the U.N. Charter, respect for sovereignty, and collective security arrangements such as NATO is unraveling before global eyes.
The catalyst was Operation Absolute Resolve, a dramatic U.S. military action in Venezuela that resulted in the capture and forcible removal of President Nicolás Maduro to New York on U.S. federal charges tied to alleged narcotics and terrorism offenses. What was framed in Washington as a precision strike against narco-terrorism has been denounced across Europe, Asia, and Latin America as a unilateral breach of sovereignty and a precedent-setting rupture in global norms.
The “Donroe Doctrine”: A Return to Hemisphere Control
In justifying the operation in Venezuela, the Trump Administration has openly invoked a revived form of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine the longstanding U.S. principle that the Western Hemisphere is a sphere of U.S. influence. But this time, the doctrine has been reshaped and amplified into what the president himself has dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine,” a rhetoric of hemisphere dominance that appears to justify unilateral force to reshape governments and secure strategic assets.
According to U.S. officials, the logic behind Absolute Resolve was not simply law enforcement but a broader assertion that the Western Hemisphere must be led or controlled by Washington. In this framework, military intervention becomes a permissible tool to remove governments deemed hostile to U.S. interests, secure oil and critical minerals, and pre-empt rival geopolitical influence.
Legal scholars and diplomats argue this represents a dramatic shift away from post-World War II principles that restrict the use of force except under collective international authorization or direct self-defense. The rebranding of the Monroe Doctrine into a new ideology of U.S. control has unsettled global leaders who see the precedent in Venezuela as potentially applicable to Colombia, Cuba, and beyond.
Greenland, NATO, and the Tipping Point
Just days after the Venezuela operation, President Trump renewed his calls for the United States to take control of Greenland, citing national security needs tied to Russian and Chinese presence in the Arctic. The rhetoric, oscillating between purchase proposals and annexation implications, has ignited fears that U.S. ambitions now extend to allied NATO territory.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued an unequivocal rebuke, warning that any attempt by the United States to take Greenland by force or coercion would spell the collapse of NATO itself. “If the United States attacks another NATO country, everything stops,” she said, underscoring how the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence guarantee makes Greenland pact-protected territory.
Greenland’s leadership was equally firm. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen declared the rhetoric “completely and utterly unacceptable,” stressing that the island’s future must be determined by its people and its legal status under the Kingdom of Denmark, not by external threats or unilateral designs.
In a rare display of continental unity, European leaders responded with direct statements of support for Denmark and Greenland. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer affirmed that “Greenland is not for sale” and emphasized that only Denmark and Greenland have the right to determine its sovereignty and security future. Leaders from France, Germany, and Nordic governments followed with strong solidarity statements, reinforcing that territorial integrity is not negotiable, even when threatened by a military ally.
The implication has rattled the geopolitical world: if Washington were to forcefully pursue Greenland, the NATO alliance could fracture, removing the central security architecture that has defined the North Atlantic for 75 years.
A Fragile Global Architecture
The sequence of recent events from Venezuela to Greenland illustrates a profound systemic stress: powerful states are increasingly willing to bypass or reinterpret long-standing constraints on the use of force and national sovereignty.
As U.S. foreign policy leans toward unilateral control of strategic assets and regional dominance, diplomats warn that the global system the U.N. Charter, NATO, and multilateral treaties is approaching a breaking point.
This moment signals more than the collapse of a regional government. It signals the collapse of the system that was built to prevent exactly this kind of moment.
Follow SDG News on LinkedIn
