Kuala Lampur, Jan. 13 -- When the Prime Minister of Denmark declares that her country faces a "decisive moment" over Greenland, it is worth pausing to ask whether the famous line from Hamlet still resonates - or whether the rot lies not in Copenhagen, but in the international system itself.

The current standoff over Greenland is not about Danish incompetence or Nordic indecision.

Rather, it exposes something far more unsettling: the steady erosion of norms among allies, and the return of a blunt, transactional geopolitics in which even long-standing partnerships are no longer immune from coercive logic.

Greenland as prize, not partner

Greenland's sudden elevation from peripheral territory to geopolitical prize reflects a simple realit...