Iceland in a New Security Environment

Ambassador Gunnar Gunnarsson, Permanent Representative of Iceland to the North Atlantic Council

Sitting astride the North-Atlantic ridge Iceland literally is situated with one part on the American continental plate and with the other on the Eurasian plate. It is with this in mind that Icelanders sometimes point to the country as figuratively embodying the transatlantic link in NATO. The geographic position of the country furthermore symbolises the fact that the country has always sought to maintain a balance in the relationship on both sides of the Atlantic.

Iceland is a founding member of NATO. It has a long standing defense agreement with the United States in the context of its NATO membership on the basis of which U.S. forces have been stationed in the country for more than half a century. Iceland which has a population of almost 300.000 people does not have military forces of its own. The coast guard is responsible for supervising an economic zone of more than 750.000 square km. An anti-terrorist unit was established in the mid 80´s embedded in the police force which is in the process of being strengthened and more recently institutionalised arrangements have been put in place to take part in NATO´s peace-support missions.

There are two distincts aspects of the country´s security policy which the Icelandic Government has paid particular attention to during the past several years. One is the adaptation of the Icelandic/US Defense Agreement to post- Cold War realities. The other is the process of increasing the country´s participation in peace-support missions.

There have been substantial reductions in personnel and forces at the Keflavík base in Iceland during the past decade which reflect new realities in the political/ strategic context of the post Cold-War period. The issue of further adaptation has been on the table for the past couple of years but has not been concluded at the time of this writing. The principal issue has been the question of the presence of the U.S. Air Force in Iceland which has had the task of providing air defense of the country.

Participation in peace-support operations with civilian personnel has gradually been increased during the past decade. More recently this has been institutionalised within the Minstry for Foreign Affairs in Reykjavík through the establishment of an Icelandic Crisis Response Unit. In this context Iceland was Lead-Nation at Pristina airport in Kosovo for the past year. It will take on a similar responsibility at Kabul airport in Afghanistan as of 1st June this year. This activity has received broad political support in Iceland and the aim is to strengthen it in the years to come.

The term Atlanticist has sometimes been used to describe personalities as well as nations in NATO. In essence the term probably applies to all members of the Alliance but maybe some are more Atlanticist than others. If this characterization is used, Iceland certainly belongs to the latter category. The transatlantic relationship is and always has been the fundament for NATO and being confident that it will continue to remain intact in spite of occasional differences - somtimes substantial- Iceland believes that the Alliance will remain the principal organisation in the European security arcitecture for years to come.