Iceland and the EU's Foreign, Security and Defense Policy. EU Goals, Icelandic History and Traditions

• Main Author: Eva Þóra Karlsdóttir 1987-
• Other Authors: Háskóli Íslands
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Stjórnmálafræði; Evrópusambandið; Utanríkisstefna; Þjóðaröryggi; Varnarmál; Ísland; Iceland
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1946/7121

The aim of this thesis is to study how well the EU’s foreign, security and defense policies coincide with Iceland’s foreign policies, particularly in regards to Iceland’s history and traditions. For this purpose, main aspects of Iceland’s foreign policy history are studied, in particular the background to Iceland’s decision to join NATO. Four aspects of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) are then used as case-studies, along with three aspects of the EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The analysis suggests that Iceland will have the ability to contribute to the EU foreign and security policy in some areas, for example through the ICRU and Iceland’s expertise and experience of sustainable energy development. Iceland’s size and limited political power are however expected to ration her contribution in other less familiar areas, such as the EU’s relations with the Mediterranean. Moreover the militaristic dimension of the CSDP, along with Iceland’s history and the persistence of a hard, realist definition of security in Icelandic thinking, are likely to shape the discourse around the security aspect of EU accession and consequently limit Iceland’s participation in this field overall.