PhD defense: Sara Olsvig

On Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 13.00, Sara Olsvig from the Institute of Society, Economics & Journalism at Ilisimatusarfik will defend her PhD thesis titled "Win the hearts and minds - Superpower influence on national self-determination - How relations between Greenland and the United States affect Greenland’s selfdetermination in times of increased international focus and tension in the Arctic."

Assessment committee

• Associate professor Jeppe Strandsbjerg, Ilisimatusarfik and Royal Danish Defence College, Denmark
• Professor Anders Wivel, Institute of Political Science, Copenhagen University, Denmark
• Professor Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir, Faculty of Political Science, University of Iceland, Iceland

Supervisors

• Main supervisor: Professor Maria Ackrén, Ilisimatusarfik
• Co-supervisor: Senior researcher Ulrik Pram Gad, Danish Institute for International Studies

Program

The auditorium at campus Ilimmarfik, Tuesday 19 August 2025 at 13.00 (Greenlandic time).

• Introduction and welcome by head of defense (max 10 min.)
• Presentation of PhD thesis by Sara Olsvig (max 1 hour)
• Pause (15 min.)
• The assessment committee:
  • Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir (max 25 min.)
  • Anders Wivel (max 25 min.)
  • Jeppe Strandsbjerg (max 25 min.)
• Ex auditorio - questions from the audience (max 15 min.)
• The defense is completed
• The assessment committee's assessment of the defense and reception

The defense will be conducted in English - and there will be simultaneous interpretation into Greenlandic.

The PhD thesis is funded by the Government of Greenland's funds for research education.

Please note that the doors will be closed during the defense process - and that it will not be possible to enter or exit the auditorium. 

The defense can be accessed online at Microsoft Teams.

A copy of the PhD thesis is available at Ilisimatusarfik's library.

Thesis summary

Through the methodological approaches of case studies and process tracing analysis, the PhD thesis examines how relations between the United States (U.S.) (a superpower) and Greenland (portrayed in the analysis as a small State-like polity) affects Greenland’s self-determination in times of increased international focus and tension in the Arctic. Employing Putnam’s two-level game theory (1998), and action space theories (Mouritzen 2006, Petersen 2005), the three analytical articles of the thesis conclude that Greenland’s action space is ambiguous: Greenland has widened its action space in relation to Denmark through deliberate, direct negotiations with the U.S., while the action space is delimited by the greater overall geopolitical conditions affecting the U.S. interests in Greenland, as they change due to the homeland security interests of the U.S.

The thesis examines how and when Greenland’s action space is widened or limited by external and internal factors in the trilateral Greenland-Denmark-U.S. relationship. The analysis furthermore discusses how the three parties engage in a new form of interlocking, two-level game, where Greenland and the U.S. engages more directly as opposed to Greenland formerly engaging Denmark from a subnational position. In the interlocking two-level game, Greenland is positioned equally to Denmark and the U.S., and by navigating well-known incentives for bargaining for win-sets, the three parties interlock each other in a new form of two-level game. This happens as each of their interests at level one (international negotiations) overlap, while each fulfils the interests of their constituents at level two (domestic level), making it possible to sign agreements.

The thesis analyzes the increasingly direct cooperation and relationship between Greenland and the U.S., carved out as Greenland has demanded a greater say towards Denmark on foreign policy, security and defense affairs. The thesis analysis is based on case studies of events taking place from 2014 to 2021, where all three actors are at play in different ways. The analysis employs a rationalist theoretic approach to negotiations between Greenland and the U.S., and in some cases between Greenland, the U.S. and Denmark. The thesis includes a constructivist backdrop in the form of two chapters laying out the historical relationships between Greenland and Denmark, and between Greenland and the U.S. The first background chapter establishes the norms, roles and legitimacy of Greenland as an independent actor, while the second background chapter analyzes the relationship seen through the lens of U.S. securitization acts towards Greenland during the past two centuries.

The empirical as well as theoretical findings of the thesis contribute to a better understanding of how Greenland has navigated its action space in times of increased geopolitical tension in the Arctic. It provides insight into the decision-making processes in Greenland’s engagements with the U.S. and Denmark, including the thinking behind its decisions and political aspirations. The process tracing analysis leads to a causal graph displaying the steps needed for Greenland to engage more directly and bilaterally with the U.S., but the question of Denmark’s involvement is a paradox in this new relationship because the need for Denmark’s involvement is viewed differently by the parties involved from case to case. The thesis concludes that Greenland is balancing a thin line of self-determination by testing its action space, and that Denmark, sometimes deliberately, sometimes not, supports Greenland’s wider room for maneuverings.

The thesis includes a discussion of how this analysis contributes to a decolonial approach to International Relations (IR) studies by employing an understanding of Greenland acting as a State-like polity, engaging in negotiations analyzed with a rationalist approach that previously has been applied to sovereign States. It furthermore includes an outlook beyond the timeframe of the study, based on the expressions of U.S. geopolitical interests in Greenland taking place as the thesis was finalized in the spring of 2025.