Subscribe now to listen to the entire 37-minute episode.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the rules-based order is being ruptured by powerful countries who prefer coercion over negotiation. The following day, as if on cue, President Donald Trump broadcast his obsession with acquiring Greenland, although he said he would not use force. In this episode, the Quincy Institute's Anatol Lieven discusses the potential dangers when the world's most powerful leader seems to believe preposterously false ideas, such as the imaginary threat posed to Greenland by Russia or China.

Non-subscribers may preview 12 minutes of this episode. Don't miss out! Subscribe: historyasithappens.supercast.com

Recommended reading:

Trump's new 'gangster' threats against Greenland cross line by Anatol Lieven (Responsible Statecraft)

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening and bonus content. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026!

This is the first in an occasional series of episodes (one or two per month) marking the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

In January 1776, a pamphlet printed in Philadelphia became an instant sensation. Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" was a provocative attack on the British constitution and hereditary monarchy, and a call for American colonists to seek independence. In this episode, historian Lindsay Chervinsky, the executive director of Mount Vernon's George Washington Presidential Library, takes us back to the ideas and arguments that made a revolution.

Recommended reading:

To Make the World Again by Lindsay Chervinsky (Imperfect Union on Substack)

Common Sense (contextus.org)

Subscribe now to enjoy ad-free listening. Keep the narrative flow going in 2026!

Greenland's geostrategic importance to the United States has been evident since the Second World War, when FDR sent U.S. forces to occupy the island and capture German weather stations on its eastern shore. After WWII, President Harry Truman, in secret, offered to buy Greenland from Denmark, but Denmark turned him down. As the Cold War froze in 1949, the two nations became official allies under the NATO treaty. Today, despite having access to Greenland under a 1951 agreement, President Donald Trump is threatening to seize it, claiming falsely that if Washington doesn't act, Russia and China will. Mikkel Olesen of the Danish Institute for International Studies tries to make sense of this madness.

Recommended reading:

The history of U.S. presence in Greenland by Mikkel Olesen