Home » Posts tagged 'Iceland'
Tag Archives: Iceland
Twitter Climate Security Diplomacy
It is not news that Twitter, for better or worse, has reached a new level of prominence in the political dialogue. As part of this new landscape, The Atlantic Council hosted a virtual “Twitter Town Hall on Nordic Contributions to Global Security” where people could submit questions directly to five Nordic country ambassadors to the US: Karin Olfsdotter of Sweden, Geir H. Haarde of Iceland, Kåre R. Aas of Norwary, Lars Gert Lose of Denmark, and Kirsti Kauppi of Finland. The Center for Climate and Security took the opportunity to ask the ambassadors a question on climate and security (naturally), and the ambassadors responded. The climate and security portion of the discussion is copied below, and the full town hall discussion is available on Twitter at #AskNordicAmbs. Thank you to the Atlantic Council and the ambassadors for the opportunity. (more…)
Iceland’s Message to US: Look To the Arctic
In a recent CNN interview by Jason Miks, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the President of Iceland, went into great detail about the changing geopolitical conditions in a melting Arctic and the distinct role of the United States in the region. Iceland, an Arctic nation which recently rebounded from a severe economic shock, can certainly teach us something about balancing domestic and international security priorities (Iceland’s security is also entirely handled by the U.S. military, so its perspective on this issue is quite consistent with that of our armed forces in the region). (more…)
China in Iceland: Melting Ice, Changing Priorities
The New York Times ran a very interesting piece a few days ago on China’s growing interest in the Arctic. Fascinatingly, China is developing a massive 500-person embassy in Reykjavik, Iceland, “a country of 320,000 people.” By contrast, according to Damien Degeorges of Greenland University, the United States only has about 70 people in their embassy. (more…)