Framing the national interest: the political uses of the Arctic in Iceland’s foreign and domestic policies

Abstract

In the article, I discuss how Iceland’s Arctic policies have been framed, developed, and enacted from the early 2000s to the present. The purpose is to show how the geopolitical importance of the Arctic has – after a post-Cold War hiatus – made the region a core component of Iceland’s foreign policy. By stressing the multifunctionality of the Arctic as a concept and spatial entity, I highlight which Arctic issues have been singled out and integrated into Icelandic official narratives. I examine how a cultural–historical interpretation of an Icelandic past has been used to underpin a discourse on a future Arctic economic dividend; how the Arctic has been projected as a symbol of Iceland’s renewed geostrategic promise following the end of the Cold War and the US military withdrawal; how Arctic narratives have functioned as a domestic political “displacement factor” in response to the financial crisis; and how the region has been “seized upon” both to reinforce Iceland’s Western foreign policy identity and to explore non-Western possibilities, such as increased ties with China. I argue that what has made the Arctic attractive as a political instrument in Icelandic foreign and domestic policies is its discursive “flexibility,” “expedience,” and “incompleteness.” By juggling diverse political, economic, and cultural factors, Icelandic elites have articulated the topicality of the Arctic by constructing ideological narratives of the region’s “future return” unencumbered by the immediacy of political accountability or scrutiny.

Keywords:

• Icelandic Arctic strategy
• Arctic Council
• foreign and security policies
• financial crisis
• relations with Arctic and non-Arctic states

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the EDDA Research Center in Critical Contemporary Research at the University of Iceland. I also want to acknowledge the financial support of the University of Iceland Research Fund.

Notes

¹ See Valur Ingimundarson, “Territorial Discourses and Identity Politics: Iceland’s Role in the Arctic,” 174–89; idem, “Iceland’s Post-American Security Policy, Russian Geopolitics and the Arctic Question,” 74–81.

² On the US-Icelandic relationship during the Cold War, see Valur Ingimundarson, The Rebellious Ally: Iceland, the United States, and the Politics of Empire, 1945–2006 (Dordrecht: Republic of Letters, 2011); see also Thor Whitehead, The Ally Who Came in from the Cold: A Survey of Icelandic Foreign Policy 1946–1956 (Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press, 1998); and Michael Corgan, Iceland and Its Alliances: Security for a Small State (Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, 2002).

³ Interview with an Icelandic official, September 28, 2006.

⁴ Address by Ambassador Benedikt Jónsson on behalf of Iceland’s Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, at the International Round Table – Indigenous Peoples of the North and the Parliamentary System of the Russian Federation: Experience and Prospects, Moscow, March 12–13, 2003, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/frettaefni/ymis-erindi/nr/224.

⁵ “The Icelandic Chairmanship Program,” Address by Ambassador Gunnar Pálsson, Chair of Senior Arctic Officials, Northern Forum 6th General Assembly, St. Petersburg, April 24, 2003.

⁶ Report of a working group of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, North Meets North: Navigation and the Future of the Arctic, July 2006 [Translated from the original report in Icelandic entitled “Haf fyrir stafni,” February 2005], http://www.mfa.is/media/Utgafa/North_Meets_North_netutg.pdf, 54.

⁷ Ibid.

⁸ “Arctic co-operation 12 years on: How successful?” Address by Ambassador Gunnar Pálsson, Chairman of Senior Arctic Officials Wilton Park Conference, United Kingdom, March 20, 2003, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/frettaefni/ymis-erindi/nr/235.

⁹ Report by Foreign Minister Halldór Ásgrímsson on Foreign and International Affairs, April 2004, http://www.althingi.is/altext/130/s/pdf/1377.pdf.

¹⁰ Address by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Davíð Oddsson, on Foreign Affairs to the Icelandic Parliament, Althing, April 29, 2005.

¹¹ On the US military withdrawal from Iceland, see Valur Ingimundarson, ed., “Frá óvissu til upplausnar. ʻÖryggisamfélag Íslands og Bandaríkjanna,ʼ 1991–2006,” [From uncertainty to dissolution: the Icelandic-U.S. “Security Community,ʼ 1991–2006,] (Reykjavík: The Icelandic Literary Society, 2008), 1–66; idem, “Confronting Strategic Irrelevance: The End of a US-Icelandic Security Community?” 66–71; and Gunnar Þór Bjarnason, Óvænt áfall eða fyrirsjáanleg tímamót? Brottför Bandaríkjahers frá Íslandi. Aðdragandi og viðbrögð [An unexpected shock or a predictable turning point? The withdrawal of US troops from Iceland: prehistory and reaction], (Reykjavík: University of Iceland Press, 2008).

¹² Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Samkomulag Noregs og Íslands um samstarf á sviði öryggismála, varnarmála og viðbúnaðar” [Memorandum of Understanding between Norway and Iceland on Security Policy Cooperation], April 2007, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Frettatilkynning/MOU_-_undirritun.pdf.

¹³ Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Yfirlýsing Danmerkur og Íslands um samstarf um öryggis- og varnarmál og almannavarnir” [Joint declaration between Denmark and Iceland on security cooperation], April 2007, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Frettatilkynning/Yfirlysing_Islands_og_Danmerkur.pdf.

¹⁴ Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Samkomulag Bretlands og Íslands um samstarf á sviði varnar- og öryggismála” [Agreement between the United Kingdom and Iceland in Defense and Security], May 2008, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/PDF/UK-Iceland_MoU_-Icelandic.pdf.

¹⁵ Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Samkomulag milli utanríkisráðuneytis Íslands og varnarmálaráðuneytis Kanada um samstarf við varnarmálum” [An Agreement between the Icelandic Foreign Ministry and the Canadian Defence Ministry], October 14, 2010, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Frettatilkynning/Ice-Can-MOU-final-Icelandic.PDF.

¹⁶ “Opening Address at the Symposium of the Law of the Sea Institute of Iceland on the Legal Status of the Arctic Ocean,” delivered by Foreign Minister Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, Reykjavik, November 9, 2007.

¹⁷ Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “NATO summit welcomes Iceland’s initiative on the High North.”

¹⁸ See Sven G. Holtsmark and Brooke A. Smith-Windsor, Security prospects in the High North: geostrategic thaw or freeze? (Rome: NATO Defence College, 2009).

¹⁹ See Karl Deutsch, Political Community in the North Atlantic Area (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1957); see also Adler and Barnett, “A Framework for the Study of Security Communities,” 29–65.

²⁰ Interviews with Permanent Representatives to NATO and Senior NATO officials, December 10 and 12, 2012.

²¹ Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, “Uneven Power and the Pursuit of Peace: How Regional Power Transitions Motive Integration,” Comparative European Politics, 6, no. 1 (2008): 102.

²² Thorvald Stoltenberg, “Nordic Cooperation on Foreign and Security Policy.” Proposals presented to the extraordinary meeting of Nordic foreign ministers in Oslo, February 9, 2009, http://eng.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Frettatilkynning/Nordic_report.pdf.

²³ Kerry Capell, “The Stunning Collapse of Iceland,” Business Week, October 9, 2008.

²⁴ Interview with a senior Russian official, June 22, 2009.

²⁵ Ibid.

²⁶ Interview with a high-ranking Icelandic official, November 15, 2008.

²⁷ “Kreppanomics. How a Banking Crisis Brought down a Small Economy,” The Economist, October 9, 2008; Zarakhovic, “Why Russia Is Bailing Out Iceland”, TIME, October 13, 2008; and “The Arctic Contest Heats up. What is Russia up to in the Seas above Europe,” The Economist, October 9, 2008.

²⁸ Interview with a high-ranking Icelandic official, November 15, 2008. See also Braithwaite, “Iceland Asks Russia for €4bn Loan after West Refuses to Help.”

²⁹ Interview with a former Icelandic government minister, June 3, 2014.

³⁰ See Alyson Bailes and Örvar Þ. Rafnsson, “Iceland and the EU’s common and security policy: challenge or opportunity?” Stjórnmál og stjórnsýsla, 8, no. 1 (2012): 109–31.

³¹ Icelandic Minstry for Foreign Affairs, “Iceland Protests Meetings of Arctic 5 Member States in Canada,” February 18, 2010, http://www.mfa.is/news-and-publications/nr/5434.

³² Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Report, Ísland á norðurslóðum [Iceland in the Arctic], April 2009, http://www.utanrikisraduneyti.is/media/Skyrslur/Skyrslan_Island_a_nordurslodumm.pdf.

³³ Ibid., 45.

³⁴ Interviews with a former Icelandic minister, November 9, 13, 28, 2011.

³⁵ See Alyson Bailes and Lassi Heininen, Strategy Papers on the Arctic or High North: A Comparative Study and Analysis (Reykjavík: Centre for Small States, 2012).

³⁶ Email from a former minister to the author, 22 December 2014.

³⁷ See, for example, Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Address on foreign affairs by Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade, delivered at the Althing, May 14, 2010, http://www.mfa.is/media/MFA_pdf/Annual_Report_MFA2010.pdf.

³⁸ Ibid.

³⁹ See Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “The Arctic as Global Challenge – Issues and Solution.” Speech by Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson, March 18, 2013, http://www.mfa.is/media/Raedur/The-Arctic-as-a-Global-Challenge---Speech-by-Ossur-Skarphedinsson.pdf.

⁴⁰ See Report, Ísland á norðurslóðum.

⁴¹ See Arctic Council Secretariat, “Annual Report 2013,” Doc2-2d_Host_Country_Agreement_Final (April 2014). What helped the Icelandic candidate for the Director’s position, Magnús Jóhannesson, a former State Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, was that the larger Arctic states could not agree on a candidate proposed by Russia, Anton Vasiliev, the current Russian Ambassador to Iceland. Interview with a Senior Arctic Official, December 3, 2012.

⁴² See Michael Billig, Banal Nationalism (London: Sage).

⁴³ See Klaus Dodds and Valur Ingimundarson, “Territorial Nationalism and Arctic Geopolitics: Iceland as an Arctic Coastal State,” The Polar Journal, 2, no. 1 (2012): 21–37.

⁴⁴ Report of a working group of the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, North Meets North: Navigation and the Future of the Arctic.

⁴⁵ See Valur Ingimundarson, “‘A Crisis of Affluence’: The Politics of an Economic Breakdown in Iceland,” Irish Studies in International Affairs, 21 (2010): 57–69.

⁴⁶ Styrmir Gunnarsson, Umsátrið – fall Íslands og endurreisn [The Siege: the Collapse of Iceland and its reconstruction] (Reykjavík: Veröld), 71.

⁴⁷ See “The Arctic as Global Challenge – Issues and Solution.”

⁴⁸ Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Free Trade Agreement between Iceland and China. Fact Sheet, April 15, 2013, http://www.mfa.is/media/ftakina/China_fact_sheet_enska_15042013.

⁴⁹ Embassy of Iceland in Beijing, “China and Iceland Sign Agreements on Geothermal and Geoscience Cooperation and in the Field of Polar Affairs,” April 23, 2012, http://www.iceland.is/icelandabroad/cn/english/news-and-events/china-and-iceland-sign-agreements-on-geothermal; Icelandic Prime Minister Office, “The Prime Minister of Iceland and China Issue a Joint Statement,” April 15, 2013, http://eng.forsaetisraduneyti.is/news-and-articles/nr/7555.

⁵⁰ On China’s Arctic aspirations, see Linda Jakobson and Jingchao Peng, China‘s Arctic Aspiration. SIPRI Policy Paper no. 34 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2012; Kai Sun, “China and the Arctic: China’s Interests and Participation in the Region,” East Asia-Arctic Relations: Boundary, Security and International Relations, Paper 2. GIGI (November 2013), http://www.google.is/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CGQQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmercury.ethz.ch%2Fserviceengine%2FFiles%2FISN%2F174282%2Fipublicationdocument_singledocument%2Fd815909f-7a63-42a3-b8c5-52b733b93b81%2Fen%2Fno2_6.pdf&ei=cinUUtXEMrPT7AbSo4Fo&usg=AFQjCNGrHvHCxyte8ZHPLXslH9phq_X1_w&sig2=do3qWIaVF3LmvFlwPWxbnA&bvm=bv.59026428,d.ZGU&cad=rja; Nong Hong, “Emerging Interests of Non-Arctic Countries in the Arctic: A Chinese Perspective,” The Polar Journal, 4, no. 2 (2014): 271–86.

⁵¹ See Alexeeva and Lasserre, “The Snow Dragon: China’s Strategies in the Arctic,” China Perspectives, 3 (2012), 61–8.

⁵² Icelandic Prime Minister Office, “Agreements and Declarations signed following a meeting between Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and Premier Wen Jiabo in Reykjavik today,” April 20, 2012.

⁵³ Guillaume Xavier-Bender, “China and the West May Soon Compete for Troubled Iceland,” May 7, 2013; see also Einar Benediktsson and Thomas R. Pickering, “China knocks on Iceland’s Door,” International Herald Tribune, March 18, 2013.

⁵⁴ The Arctic Institute: Center for Circumpolar Security Studies, “Iceland for Sale – Chinese Tycoon Seeks to Purchase 300 km² of Wilderness,” September 2, 2011.

⁵⁵ See Össur Skarphéðinsson, Ár drekans. Dagbók utanríkisráðherra á umbrotatímum [The year of the dragon. A foreign minister’s diaries in turbulent times] (Reykjavík: Sögur, 2013), 48, 53.

⁵⁶ See Skarphéðinsson, Ár drekans, 52–3.

⁵⁷ See, for example, “Iceland Invites China to Arctic Shipping,” September 22, 2010.

⁵⁸ “ASÍ mótmælir fríverslunarsamningi við Kína” [The Icelandic Federation of Labour protests against Free Trade Agreement with China], April 12, 2013.

⁵⁹ See “Teeing Off at Edge of the Arctic? A Chinese Plan Baffles Iceland,” March 22, 2013.

⁶⁰ “Hætta við kaup á Grímsstöðum” [Abandon plans for the purchase of Grímsstaðir], RUV [Icelandic Radio Broadcasting Services], December 12, 2014.

⁶¹ Interview with Senior Arctic officials, December 12, 2012 and May 28, 2013.

⁶² Arctic Council Secretariat, “Kiruna Senior Arctic Officials Report to Minister,” May 15, 2013.

⁶³ Interview with a high-ranking Icelandic security policy official, November 11, 2013.

⁶⁴ Tuomas Forsberg, “The Rise of Nordic Defence Cooperation: A Return to Regionalism?” International Affairs, 1175.

⁶⁵ “Free Trade Agreement between Iceland and China,” Fact Sheet, April 15, 2013.

⁶⁶ “Clinton Rebuke Overshadow Canada’s Arctic Meeting,” March 29, 2010.

⁶⁷ See “Iceland and Germany Plan New Port”; Morgunblaðið, August 30, 2013.

⁶⁸ See Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs. Address of Icelandic Foreign Minister, Össur Skarphéðinsson, when presenting his Annual Report to the Parliament, February 14, 2013, 1 http://www.mfa.is/media/Raedur/framsoguraeda-OS-14-feb-2013.pdf. See also Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, “Skýrsla Össurar Skarphéðinssonar utanríkisráðherra um utanríkis- og al\xFEjóðamál” [Report of the Minister for Foreign Affairs on foreign and international affairs], April 2012, http://www.althingi.is/altext/140/s/pdf/1229.pdf.

⁶⁹ “Gagnrýnir áform í Finnafirði” [Criticizes Finnafjörður plans], RUV, September 9, 2013.