Icelandic Security Policy: Context and Trends

• Published in: Cooperation and Conflict
• Main Author: Gunnarsson, Gunnar
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1982
• Subjects: Greenland; Keflavík; Norwegian Sea; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001083678201700405; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001083678201700405

Iceland holds a central position in the Greenland–Iceland–United Kingdom gap (GIUK gap), which constitutes a choke point through which naval transit routes in and out of the Norwegian Sea must necessarily lie. Situated between the American and European continents, Iceland constitutes a ‘bridgehead’ from which support or reinforcement by short-range aircraft from the U.S. can be provided. This article first analyzes the GIUK gap and its role in U.S. and Soviet naval strategy and concludes that changes in Soviet naval strategy imply diminished importance for the GIUK gap. The second part of the article analyzes general characteristics of Iceland's security policy. While there is no realistic alternative to Iceland's NATO membership, the U.S. base in Keflavík has been highly controversial. The perceived cultural impact of the American presence in Iceland has always been a major focus of the political controversy on security policy, whereas the military aspect has been less prevalent until recent years. Iceland's position in NATO has characteristically been a detached one. Icelandic efforts to establish research and expertise in the security field as well as the trend towards increased politicization of the military aspects of security policy are discussed in the concluding part of the article.