Post-colonial gaslighting and Greenlandic independence: When ontological insecurity sustains hierarchy

Abstract

This article proposes the concept of ‘post-colonial gaslighting’ to analyse subtle forms of colonialism and domination in international relations and the persistence of hierarchies in the international system. It asks why Greenland, despite electoral majorities for independence, remains a part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Going beyond existing materialist explanations focusing on lack of economic development, the article deploys the framework of ontological insecurity to show how Danish elites through techniques of gaslighting challenge the post-colonial status of Greenland and prevent agency. The Greenlandic colonial experience is rejected and delegitimised, in turn providing the foundation for blaming Greenlanders for failing to live up to the criteria of statehood. The article thus breaks with widespread assumptions of voluntarism in the literature on non-sovereignty, as well as introducing mechanisms of contestation to the literature on ontological security. The theoretical contribution of the article is the conceptual marriage of the hierarchy and ontological security literatures through the concept of post-colonial gaslighting.