Unpolitical Wars: Presentations of Conflict in Development and Foreign Policy Discourses in Iceland

Abstract

The establishment of the Icelandic peacekeeping unit (ICRU), in 2001, signalled Iceland's increased participation in various UN peacekeeping projects in conflict-ridden areas, and can be seen as a part of an emphasis during its economic boom years on Iceland as an important international player. Engagement in foreign conflicts has, however, never been a part of Icelandic national identity. Iceland had prided itself on its lack of a national army and non-engagement in war-related activities. In exploring this contradiction the article's claim is that in the public media ICRU participation in conflicts was depoliticized because the Icelandic government placed it within an emerging international humanitarian framework. The Icelandic example indicates how extremely political issues are depoliticized locally by reflecting international discourses.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research is informed by the research projects ‘Development, Culture, Globalization: Icelandic Development Assistance in a Global and Local Context’ and ‘Icelandic Identity in Crisis’, funded by the University of Iceland Research Fund. The interviews were conducted by Björnsdóttir in the context of her doctoral research on ideas and images of masculinity in relation to the ICRU.

Notes

Paul Higate and Marsha Henry, Insecure Spaces: Peacekeeping, Power and Performance in Kosovo, Liberia and Haiti, London: Zed Books, 2009.

Már Wolgang Mixa, ‘Once in Khaki Suits: Socioeconomics Features of the Icelandic Collapse’, in Ingjaldur Hannibalsson (ed.), Rannsóknir í félagsvísindum X [Social Science Research X], Reykjavik: Háskólaútgáfan, 2009, pp.435–47. Bank deregulation in the 1990s and the liberalization of capital flows, as well as adoption of the European Economic Space (EES) treaty in 1994, marked the start of the boom. See Stefán Ólafsson, ‘Íslenska efnahagsundrið: Frá hagsæld til frjálshyggju og fjármálahruns’ [The Icelandic economic miracle: from prosperity to neo-liberalism and financial crash], Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla [Politics and Administration], Vol.2, No.4, 2008, pp.233–56; Ministry of Finance, ‘Fylgiskjal um eignir og skuldir ríkissjóðs’ [Information regarding assets and liabilities of the government], 2009 (at: www.fjarmalaraduneyti.is/media/Utgefin_rit/Fylgiskjol_um_eignir_og_skuldir_rikissjods_20090626.pdf); ‘Um skuldastöðu ríkissjóðs’ [Treasury statistics], news announcement, 15 Mar. 2010 (at: www.fjarmalaraduneyti.is/frettir/frettatilkynningar/frettatilkynningar/nr/12988).

Mixa (see n.2 above).

Bjarni Benediktsson, ‘Trúum á vinsamlega samvinnu þjóðanna’ [Faith in peaceful cooperation between the nations], Morgunblaðið, 14 Apr. 1949 (at: www.mbl.is/serefni/nato/bjarni_ben_1949.html).

Michel Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, London: Routledge, 1995, p.49.

Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume I: An Introduction, New York: Vintage Books, 1978, p.101.

Frances Mascia-Lees and Nancy Johnston Black, Gender and Anthropology, Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 2000.

Sue Thomas, ‘The Trouble with Our Schools: A Media Construction of Public Discourses on Queensland Schools’, Discourses, Vol.24, No.1, 2003, pp.19–33; Norman Fairclough, Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language, London: Longman, 1995; James Paul Gee, Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses, London: Taylor & Francis, 1996.

Thomas (see n.8 above).

Ibid.; Cynthia Enloe, ‘Demilitarization – or More of the Same? Feminist Questions to Ask in the Postwar Moment,’ in Cynthia Cockburn and Dubravka Zarkov (eds), The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping and the Netherlands, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2002, pp.22–33; Higate and Henry (see n.1 above); Rachel Woodward, Military Geographies, Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2004; Sandra Whitworth, Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: A Gendered Analysis, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004.

Enloe (see n.10 above), p.23.

Marek Thee, ‘Militarism and Militarisation in Contemporary International Relations’, in Asbjörn Eide and Marek Thee (eds), Problems of Contemporary Militarism, London: Croom Helm, 1980, pp.15–33.

Cynthia Enloe, Maneuvres: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.

Gerard J. DeGroot, ‘A Few Good Women: Gender Stereotypes, the Military and Peacekeeping’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.8, No.2, 2001, pp.23–38; Liora Sion, ‘Two Sweet and Innocent for War? Dutch Peacekeepers and the Use of Violence,’ Armed Forces & Society, Vol.32, No.3, 2006, pp.454–74; Whitworth (see n.10 above).

Peter Viggo Jakobsen, ‘The Nordic Peacekeeping Model: Rise, Fall, Resurgence?’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.3, No.3, 2006, p.382.

Eli Stamnes, ‘Introduction’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.4, No.4, pp.449–57.

Sherene Razack, ‘From the Clean Snows of Petawawa: The Violence of Canadian Peacekeepers in Somalia’, Cultural Anthropology, Vol.15, 2000, p.134; Sandra Whitworth, ‘Militarized Masculinities and the Politics of Peacekeeping: The Canadian Case’, in Ken Booth (ed.), Critical Security Studies in World Politics, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2005, pp.89–106; Joseph T. Jockel, Canada and International Peacekeeping, Toronto: Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies,1993.

Jockel (see n.17 above).

USAID, ‘Freedom, Security, Opportunity’, 2002 (at: www.usaid.gov/fan/Summary-Foreign_Aid_in_the_National Intrest.pdf); UNDP, ‘International Cooperation at a Crossroads: Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World’, 2005 (at: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2005/); Commadore Tim Laurence, Humanitarian Assistance and Peacekeeping: An Uneasy Alliance?, London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies, 2000; Hugo Slim, ‘The Stretcher and the Drum: Civil–Military Relations in Peace Support Operations’, International Peacekeeping, Vol.3, No.3, 1996, pp.123–39.

Lynne Phillips and Susan Ilcan, ‘Gendering Peace: Global Rationalities of Security and UNESCO's Culture of Peace Campaign’, Anthropologica, Vol.48, 2006, pp.49–71.

Amrita Chachhi and Linda Herrera, ‘Empire, Geopolitics and Development’, Development and Change, Vol.38, No.6, 2007, pp.1021–40.

Alex J. Bellamy, Paul Williams and Stuart Griffin, Understanding Peacekeeping, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2004.

Ibid.; Slim (see n.19 above). Robert A. Rubinstein points out that the purpose of this new definition of the term ‘peacekeeping’ was to highlight the fact that it (peacekeeping) was increasingly being asked to ‘take on a new range of operational functions’, and to set apart peacekeeping before and after 1990 (Peacekeeping under Fire: Culture and Intervention, Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2008, p.9). See also John Mackinlay and Jarat Chopra, A Draft Concept of Second Generation Multinational Operations, Providence, RI: Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University, 1993.

Dyan Mazurana, ‘International Peacekeeping Operations: To Neglect Gender Is to Risk Peacekeeping Failure’, in Cynthia Cockburn and Dubravka Zarkov (eds), The Postwar Moment: Militaries, Masculinities and International Peacekeeping and the Netherlands, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2002, pp.41–51.

Cockburn and Zarkov (see n.10 above).

Rubinstein (see n.23 above); Trevor Findley, The Use of Force in UN Peace Operations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

The only ‘war’ that Iceland has waged is the Cod War – a series of non-violent conflicts between Iceland and the UK, over the extension of Iceland's fishing limits in the late 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Benediktsson (see n.4 above).

Valur Ingimundarson, ‘Immunizing against the American Other: Racism, Nationalism, and Gender in U.S.–Icelandic Military Relations during the Cold War’, Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol.6, No.4, 2004, pp.65–88.

Inga Dóra Björnsdóttir, ‘Public View and Private Voices’, in Paul Durrenberger and Gísli Pálsson (eds), The Anthropology of Iceland, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1989, pp.98–118.

Baldur Þórhallsson, ‘Iceland's Involvement in Global Affairs since the Mid-1990s: What Features Determine the Size of a State’, Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla, Vol.2, No.2, 2006, p.6.

Ibid.

Þórhallsson, ‘What Features Determine Small States’ Activities in the International Arena? Iceland's Approach to Foreign Relations until the Mid-1990s', Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla, Vol.1, No.1, 2005, p.126.

Kristín Loftsdóttir and Helga Björnsdóttir, ‘The Jeep-Gangsters from Iceland: Local Development Assistance in a Global Context’, Critique of Anthropology, Vol.30, No.1, 2010, pp.23–39.

‘Flutningsræða Ólafs Björnssonar’ [Speech by Ólafur Björnsson], Alþingistíðindi (Reykjavik), 24 Nov. 1964, pp.8–13; ‘Ræða Einars Olgeirssonar’ [Speech by Einar Olgeirsson], Alþingistíðindi, 25 Nov. 1964, pp.14–18.

Loftsdóttir and Björnsdóttir (see n. 34).

‘Stofnun friðargæslu undirbúin’ [Preparations for the establishment of peacekeeping unit], Morgunblaðið, 8 Sept. 2001 (at www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Lög um íslensku friðargæsluna og þátttöku hennar í alþjóðlegri friðargæslu [Laws regarding the Icelandic peacekeeping units and its participation in international peacekeeping], June 2007 (at: www.althingi.is/lagas/137/2007073.html); Helga Björnsdóttir, ‘“Give Me Some Men Who Are Stout-Hearted Men, Who Will Fight for the Right They Adore”: Negotiating Gender and Identity in Icelandic Peacekeeping’, PhD thesis, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, 2011.

See Ólafsson (n.2 above).

Kristín Loftsdóttir, ‘The Loss of Innocence: The Icelandic Financial Crisis and Colonial Past’, Anthropology Today, Vol.26, No.6, 2010, pp.9–13.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, ‘Iceland's Policy on Development Co-operation 2005–2009’ (at: www.mfa.is/media/Utgafa/Stefnumid_ENSKA.pdf).

Þórhallsson (see n. 33 above).

Ibid., p.210

Ibid., p.221.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, speech, 15 Dec. 2001 (at: www.forseti.is/media/files/01.12.15.Fridarsamkoma(3).pdf).

Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, ‘Breytt öryggisumhverfi – ný viðhorf í varnarmálum’ [New security environments – new perspectives on defence issues], 27 Nov. 2007 (at: www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/frettaefni/raedurISG/nr/4002).

Loftsdóttir (see n.40 above).

Ibid.

Loftsdóttir and Björnsdóttir (see n.34 above).

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper A, Reykjavik, 20 Mar. 2006.

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper B, Reykjavik,15 June 2007.

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper C, Reykjavik,10 Aug. 2007.

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper D, Reykjavik, 2 Feb. 2006.

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper E, Reykjavik, 22 Sept. 2006.

Interview by Björnsdóttir with peacekeeper F, Reykjavik, 4 Oct. 2006.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs (see n. 41 above).

Ibid., p.19.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, ‘Íslenska friðargæslan. Ársskýrsla 2006’ [ICRU, Annual Report 2006] (at: www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/fridargaeslan/UTN100608_fridargaesla_lowres.pdf), p.4.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, ‘Íslenska friðargæslan. Ársskýrsla 2007’ [ICRU, Annual Report 2007], Oct. 2008 (at: www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/fridargaeslan/UTN100608_fridargaesla_lowres.pdf), p.5.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs, ‘Peacekeeping – the Icelandic Crisis Response Unit’ 17 Sept. 2008 (at: www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/utanrikismal/fridargaesla).

Mazurana (see n.24 above), p.42.

Ministry for Foreign Affairs (see n.58 above), p.4. From 2001 to 2008 the ICRU and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs issued only two annual reports, for 2006 and 2007.

‘Eldmóður í efnahagslífinu hefur skilað sér til almennings’ [The vibrant economy has yielded benefits for the general public], Morgunblaðið, 4 Oct. 2006 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

‘Baráttan gegn hryðjuverkum verið forgangsmál’ [The fight against terrorism is a priority], Morgunblaðið, 3 Nov. 2001 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Morgunblaðið, ‘Reykjavíkurbréf’, 23 Nov. 2002 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Rúnar Pálmason and Arna Schram, ‘Fara með 4 fjallajeppa til Afganistans’ [Take 4 mountain jeeps to Afganistan], Morgunblaðið, 30 Apr. 2005 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Whitworth (see n.17 above); Razack (see n.17 above).

Davíð Logi Sigurðsson, ‘Að stjórna því sem sagt er’ [To control what is said], Morgunblaðið, 30 Mar. 2006 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

‘Þekkir hvorki sverð né blóð?’ [Knows neither sword nor blood?], Morgunblaðið, 3 Dec. 2004 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

‘Eðlilegt að skoða hvernig Íslendingar axla ábyrgð’ [Natural to investigate how Icelanders take reponsibility], Morgunblaðið, 25 Oct. 2004 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Halldór Ásgrímsson, ‘Forsenda friðar er friðargæsla’ [The condition for peace is peacekeeping], Morgunblaðið, 23 Dec. 2001 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

‘Baráttan gegn hryðjuverkum verði efld um allan heim’ [Fight against terrorism strengthened around the world], Morgunblaðið, 7 Apr. 2004 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

‘Íslendingar verði leiðandi í rekstri Kabúl flugvallar’ [Icelanders will be leading in the running of Kabul airport], Morgunblaðið, 1 Nov. 2003 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn); ‘25 Íslendingar í 60 þúsund manna hraðliði ESB’ 25 Icelanders in the 60 thousand member team of [ESB], Morgunblaðið, 12 Sept. 2001 (at www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Anna Jóhannsdóttir, ‘Starf í þágu friðar’ [Working for the benefits of peace], Morgunblaðið, 18 Oct. 2007 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn); ‘Til Afganistans á morgun’ [To Afganistan tomorrow], Morgunblaðið, 15 Mar. 2008 (at: www.mbl.is/mm/gagnasafn).

Gunnar Páll Baldvinsson, ‘Friðargæsla herlausrar þjóðar: Stefnumótun, sjálfsmynd og orðræða’ [Peacekeeping by a nation without an army], in Valur Ingimundarson (ed.), Uppbrot hugmyndakerfis: Endurmótun íslenskrar utanríkisstefnu 1991–2007 [The Reshaping of Icelandic Foreign Policy 1991–2007], Reykjavik: Hið íslenska bókmenntafélag, 2008, pp.137–17.

The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was an exception: launched, supported and mandated by five Nordic countries, Iceland included.

Kristín Loftsdóttir, ‘Kjarnmesta fólkið í heimi: Þrástef íslenskrar þjóðernishyggju í gegnum lýðveldisbaráttu, útrás og kreppu’ [Icelandic nationalist themes in the fight for independence: economic expansion and regression], Ritið (Reykyavik), Vols.2–3, 2009, pp.113–39.

Chachhi and Herrera (see n.21 above).

Richard Falk, ‘Legality to Legitimacy: The Revival of the Just War Framework’, Interventionism, Vol. 26, No.1, 2008, pp.40–5.

Zakia Salime, ‘The War on Terrorism: Appropriation and Subversion by Moroccan Women’, Signs, Vol.33, No.1, 2007, pp.1–24.

James Ferguson, The Anti-politics Machine, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.

Whitworth (see n.10 above).

Loftsdóttir (see n.77 above).

Birna Þórarinsdóttir, Íslenska friðargæslan: jafnréttis- og kynjasjónarmið í stefnu og starfsemi 1994–2004 [The Icelandic Peacekeeping Unit: Equality and Gender Perspectives in Policy and Operations 1994–2004], Reykjavik: RIKK, 2005.