Russia and China in Iceland?
The Arctic region has become the site of renewed great power interest. Not only are the US and Russia actively engaged in the Arctic Council, but China has also become an observer. In addition to that, a number of policy commentators have claimed that great power interest in the Arctic region is mor...
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ftnupi:oai:nupi.brage.unit.no:11250/2436648 2024-09-15T17:52:33+00:00 Russia and China in Iceland? Leira, Halvard de Carvalho, Benjamin 2017-04-03T19:36:31Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2436648 eng eng Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt NUPI Policy Brief NUPI Policy Brief;2016-44 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2436648 cristin:1462556 Navngivelse-Ikkekommersiell-DelPåSammeVilkår 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.no 4 2016 44 Russland og Eurasia Russia and Eurasia Asia Arktis Arctic Diplomati Diplomacy Research report 2017 ftnupi 2024-08-21T03:02:52Z The Arctic region has become the site of renewed great power interest. Not only are the US and Russia actively engaged in the Arctic Council, but China has also become an observer. In addition to that, a number of policy commentators have claimed that great power interest in the Arctic region is more than cooperation over natural resources and climate change, and that this “scramble for the Arctic” may, in fact, herald a renewed geopolitical engagement in the region. In the case of Iceland, commentators have pointed to the increased activity of both Russia and China as evidence of this. To the extent that there may be such an interest underlying the Arctic policies of Russia and China, in effect linking economic and public goods to security, we set out to probe this link here. Rather than being able to conclude that there was a clear great power competition going on over influence in Iceland, we suggest that much of the great power presence and interest in Iceland is the result of Iceland’s willingness to play great powers off against one another. We encountered little evidence of a strong Chinese presence in Iceland, although the few avenues China had pursued had resulted in a fair amount of distrust. As for Russia, there seems to have been Russian willingness to provide a loan to bail out Iceland in 2008, but it remains unclear what, if any, the ulterior motives were. For Iceland, the motive seems to have been the ability to use Russia as international leverage. On the balance, the case of Iceland gives little evidence of a strong competition between China, Russia and the US for influence on the island. On the other hand, Iceland’s ability to play different public goods providers up against each other suggests that the model of public goods substitution may have given to little emphasis on the agency of ‘client’ states. Report Arctic Council Arktis Arktis* Climate change Iceland Norwegian Institute of international affairs: NUPI Research Online (Brage) |
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Open Polar |
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Norwegian Institute of international affairs: NUPI Research Online (Brage) |
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ftnupi |
language |
English |
topic |
Russland og Eurasia Russia and Eurasia Asia Arktis Arctic Diplomati Diplomacy |
spellingShingle |
Russland og Eurasia Russia and Eurasia Asia Arktis Arctic Diplomati Diplomacy Leira, Halvard de Carvalho, Benjamin Russia and China in Iceland? |
topic_facet |
Russland og Eurasia Russia and Eurasia Asia Arktis Arctic Diplomati Diplomacy |
description |
The Arctic region has become the site of renewed great power interest. Not only are the US and Russia actively engaged in the Arctic Council, but China has also become an observer. In addition to that, a number of policy commentators have claimed that great power interest in the Arctic region is more than cooperation over natural resources and climate change, and that this “scramble for the Arctic” may, in fact, herald a renewed geopolitical engagement in the region. In the case of Iceland, commentators have pointed to the increased activity of both Russia and China as evidence of this. To the extent that there may be such an interest underlying the Arctic policies of Russia and China, in effect linking economic and public goods to security, we set out to probe this link here. Rather than being able to conclude that there was a clear great power competition going on over influence in Iceland, we suggest that much of the great power presence and interest in Iceland is the result of Iceland’s willingness to play great powers off against one another. We encountered little evidence of a strong Chinese presence in Iceland, although the few avenues China had pursued had resulted in a fair amount of distrust. As for Russia, there seems to have been Russian willingness to provide a loan to bail out Iceland in 2008, but it remains unclear what, if any, the ulterior motives were. For Iceland, the motive seems to have been the ability to use Russia as international leverage. On the balance, the case of Iceland gives little evidence of a strong competition between China, Russia and the US for influence on the island. On the other hand, Iceland’s ability to play different public goods providers up against each other suggests that the model of public goods substitution may have given to little emphasis on the agency of ‘client’ states. |
format |
Report |
author |
Leira, Halvard de Carvalho, Benjamin |
author_facet |
Leira, Halvard de Carvalho, Benjamin |
author_sort |
Leira, Halvard |
title |
Russia and China in Iceland? |
title_short |
Russia and China in Iceland? |
title_full |
Russia and China in Iceland? |
title_fullStr |
Russia and China in Iceland? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Russia and China in Iceland? |
title_sort |
russia and china in iceland? |
publisher |
Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2436648 |
genre |
Arctic Council Arktis Arktis* Climate change Iceland |
genre_facet |
Arctic Council Arktis Arktis* Climate change Iceland |
op_source |
4 2016 44 |
op_relation |
NUPI Policy Brief NUPI Policy Brief;2016-44 http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2436648 cristin:1462556 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse-Ikkekommersiell-DelPåSammeVilkår 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.no |
_version_ |
1810294615889149952 |