Kuala Lampur, Jan. 22 -- Greenland's government has issued civil-preparedness guidelines advising households how to cope for five days amid possible power outages and disruptions to water, food, medicine, heating, and communications. The message, Dr as articulated by Greenlandic minister Peter Borg, is deliberately calming: this is not a signal that a crisis is expected; it is about strengthening resilience.

That reassurance is necessary - but insufficient. Preparedness manuals do not emerge in political vacuums.

They surface when strategic pressure accumulates, when uncertainty thickens, and when a society senses that external interests may test its autonomy without necessarily firing a shot. In the Arctic, the contest is no longer hyp...