Ever since its discovery Greenland has been a frontier for human exploration, empire and geostrategic competition. This book delves into that rich history and complex politics, revealing how a country of just 56,000 inhabitants, 80% of which is above the Arctic Circle, has shaped—and been shaped by—the world.

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Elizabeth Buchanan’s short history begins with Erik the Red and the Vikings, Greenland’s first colonizers—whose settlement of over 2,000 people mysteriously disappeared. She explores the island’s evolution from a Danish possession into an autonomous territory, and its role in the World War II, when soldiers from the U.S. helped Greenland’s 15-man army, operating on dogsleds, capture Nazis trying to set up secret, remote surveillance outposts. She details how Greenland became a strategic hot spot in the Cold War arms race between the U.S. and Russia — when the U.S. built a nuclear-powered base under the Greenland icesheet, and President Kennedy devised Project Iceworm, a plan to deploy 600 ballistic ice-hidden missiles there.

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Finally, she dissects Greenland’s position today at the center of a new “great game,” featuring Cold War belligerents the U.S. and Russia and now China, and the mounting domestic pressures for independence—not to mention President Trump’s agenda to acquire the landmass.

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Buchanan poses provocative yet compelling scenarios for Greenland’s future, providing an essential read for anyone curious about this frozen frontier and its place on the world stage.