Rhetorical Stance-Taking Under Constraint: Denmark, Greenland, and U.S. Annexation Rhetoric

This study examines official Danish and Greenlandic responses to renewed U.S. rhetoric about annexing Greenland between 2019 and early 2026 as a public-facing strategic communication problem. Drawing on the contingency theory of accommodation and U.S. presidential rhetorical theory, the paper analyzes how rhetorical stances shifted over time along the advocacy–accommodation continuum under conditions of escalating threat and costly material alternatives. Based on an analysis of public statements, policy documents, and news coverage, the case is organized into three phases. The findings show a redistribution of rhetorical stances across audiences, the role of internal accommodation as coalition-building, and the emergence of a multilateral rhetorical coalition in the final phase.