Iceland’s Arctic Policies and Shifting Geopolitics: Embellished Promise has been published by Palgrave Macmillian. The book is written by EDDA researcher Valur Ingimundarson.

The Arctic has gained increasing importance in international discussions due to climate change, resource exploitation, ideas about new shipping routes emerging from the melting ice at the North Pole, and environmental threats.

In this book, Prof. Valur Ingimundarson, an expert in international and contemporary history who has also focused on international relations and security issues, examines the role of the Arctic in Iceland’s foreign and security policies from the end of the Cold War to the present. Based on extensive research and drawing on approaches from the fields of history and international relations, it shows that Iceland’s Arctic policies have gone through multiple phases during this period, all of which have been heavily influenced by external geopolitical factors, including its relationship with the United States, the 2008 financial crisis, the rise of China, and the Ukrainian crisis. It also demonstrates how Iceland’s strategic position in the North Atlantic has significant repercussions for the United States, Russia and China. 

With an emphasis on geopolitics, nation branding, and governance, this book will appeal to scholars and students of Arctic policies, geopolitics and international relations.

Further information about the book can be found here.

Keywords: Iceland, Arctic policy, geopolitics, governance, economics, militarization