US Leaders Champion Borders Until they Want New Ones

How the taboo attached to conquest doesn’t stop American temptation for more land.

US Mexico Border 2019 | Image Source: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

“I know that these are dark days, dark days brought on by a country we can no longer trust.” These words by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney carry a powerful message of how after repeated aggressive statements and untoward remarks by President Donald J. Trump Senior (R-Florida), the Canadians have started to see America as an enemy. The two countries that enjoyed remarkable peace at the world’s longest undefended land border now stand at loggerheads as Trump reiterates his commitment to make Canada the 51st state and slaps tariff upon tariff on Canadian imports.

Further North, Trump also seems to have his sights set on Greenland, the autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Since 2019, Trump has expressed his desire to ‘buy’ Greenland sparking outrage among locals, ‘he’s treating us like a good he can purchase.’ What Trump is doing right now is shaking the international norm against territorial conquest and going against a fundamental principle of the international community that conquest is bad.

It took ages for people to agree (to an extent) that conquest is illegitimate and wrong, at least when done so outrightly and aggressively. But on closer look, we…