The story (here) is about Canada joining the EU (the Economist loves the idea). Their reasoning is summed up as Canada has resources and space, Europe has too many people and has used up most of their natural resources.
All that is interesting, but not the subject of this post. No, this is about Canada and Denmark's "Whiskey War" *. Read this summary, it is the picture of civility.
As international conflicts go, none did so little to disrupt the global order as the “whisky wars” that pitted Canada against Denmark for four decades. Flaring up in 1984, the unlikely spat involved a one-square-kilometre island in the middle of an icy Arctic channel marking the border between Greenland (now a self-ruling part of Denmark) and the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Both sides assumed the rock was theirs. What might have been considered a casus belli by lesser countries became, for the northern duo, an exercise in diplomatic civility. Canadian officials visiting the island marked their territory by leaving whisky and flags; Danes asserted sovereignty by snaffling the booze and leaving their own schnapps for Canadians to enjoy. In lieu of shots fired, polite letters were occasionally exchanged. When the quarrel grew tiresome, a working group spent years agreeing to split the island down the middle, ending all hostilities in 2022.
*Note that this is the "Whiskey War," not the much early US "Whiskey Rebellion."
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