Iceland: a Small State Learning the Intelligence Ropes (in) European Intelligence Cultures. Rowman & Littlefield, London 2016.

Abstract

Iceland has based its security policy on international cooperation and military protection. During the Cold War, Iceland was a free-rider state in NATO and Iceland’s contribution was to provide land for a military base in exchange for security and protection. Iceland has used its strategic location in the North Atlantic to pursue its primary security goal, the extension of the fishing zone around the island. A small security unit was created in the 1950s, but in the Cold War era it was more concerned with internal threats than external. After the Cold War, Iceland began to participate more in international affairs, especially as changes in the European security landscape changed the position and status of its security policy. The establishment of the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police in 1997 was a step toward creating an intelligence unit in Iceland, but the National Security Unit established in 2007 was the first major step.