The Security of Iceland and the Arctic 2030

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Introduction and Setting the Stage

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 1-14

3. Globalism Failed – Iceland Alone in an Insecure Arctic

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 15-27

4. Arctic States’ Comparative Sub-Strategic Security Policies

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 29-61

5. Icelandic Security Sector Reform and Proposed Security Force

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 63-90

6. Icelandic Security Force Scenarios 2030

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 91-111

7. Iceland’s Conflict History and Attitudes Toward Security

   • Robert P. Wheelersburg

   Pages 113-149

This book outlines a recommended Icelandic security force as part of the country’s defence against sub-strategic threats such as human trafficking by criminals or border incursions by other states.  It also tests the recommended security force through the development of four different hypothetical scenarios in the year 2030 designed to show the force’s successful implementation.  Melting of the Arctic ice pack, and the opening of the Transpolar Sea Route around 2025 could lead to an increase in traffic into the North Atlantic from the Pacific (and vice versa).  That movement is predicted to bring a massive influx of tourists, business interests, and government entities into the region.  Along with legitimate uses of the new shipping lanes, the opportunity for terrorists, criminals, and rogue states to travel in and around the Arctic could lead to increased smuggling, violence, and sovereignty disputes (i.e., seizing uninhabited terrain).  A review of Iceland’s current security policies indicates that the parliament provided the legal framework to create the recommended security force with the 2016 Parliamentary Resolution establishing a National Security Policy for Iceland.  Many scholars and government officials believe that the Iceland public would not support a security force culturally.  Yet, recent surveys reveal that many Icelanders could accept a security force to protect them from sub-strategic threats, especially if the increased security could be attained without the intervention of foreign military forces.  The recommended security force utilizes Icelandic search-and-rescue volunteers and Reservists to increase the protection of the country funded by its full NATO contribution.

 

 

 

• Transpolar Sea Route
• Security of Iceland and small state security
• Arctic security policies
• North Atlantic
• Regional NATO response
• Territorial integrity and safety in the Arctic

• Department of Sociology and Anthropology (retired), Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, USA

  Robert P. Wheelersburg

With nearly five decades of research and military experience in the Arctic, Robert Wheelersburg is uniquely prepared to discuss security policy in the Nordic and North Atlantic Regions.  He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University in Anthropology and Circumpolar Studies and has conducted fieldwork among Saami reindeer herders in Sweden and Russia (Kola Peninsula) for over twenty years, along with fieldwork and archival work in Denmark, Iceland, and Finland for nearly thirty years.  Dr. Wheelersburg received three Fulbright Scholarships; two to Umea University's Arctic and Saami Studies Departments and one to the University of Iceland's Centre for Arctic Policy Studies.  He has obtained several grants to conduct his research including funding from such organizations as the U.S. National Science Foundation's Arctic Social Science Program and the American Scandinavian Foundation, publishing several articles in journals like Arctic Anthropology, Polar Geography, Arctic, and Polar Record.  Dr. Wheelersburg also served as a U.S. Army officer assigned to NATO as an intelligence, civil military operations, and disaster assistance liaison officer for twenty five years, performing duty in northern Germany, Iceland (as a member of the Icelandic Defence Force), and as an exchange officer with the Swedish Rangers.