Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2014, Síða 10

10
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2014
President Ólafur Ragnar Gríms-
son’s office reported that he met
with the Russian ambassador to dis-
cuss the “accident” that was Malaysia
Air Flight MH-17, making Iceland’s
president the only source apart from
Kremlin-backed RT.com still referring
to the incident as an “accident.”
The ongoing story of Harriet
Cardew continues, as a lawyer
for her family now contends that the
National Registry is violating Ice-
land’s constitution by refusing to
grant a passport to an Icelandic citizen.
While the Registry say that only Icelan-
dic names may be used in passports, it
has been noted that there are plenty of
Icelandic passports issued that do not
use Icelandic names at all.
One of the highlights of the Ice-
landic summer, Reykjavík Pride,
happened in a major way last weekend.
A record-setting 90,000 people at-
tended the festivities, comprising over
a fourth the population of the country.
Granted, a great many of these people
were definitely the aforementioned
tourists, but still—not too shabby!
No news round-up would be
complete without that perennial
hot button topic, whaling. It's been
reported that there is actually a short-
age of minke whale meat for Iceland’s
shops and restaurants. As polls show
that only about 3% of Icelanders they
eat whale regularly, the demand likely
comes from other sources. The causes
of the shortage have been attributed
to an overlap of who’s fishing what in
Faxaflói Bay around Reykjavík, but also
possibly to climate change—that minke
whales are staying in southern waters
for longer, making them show up later
in the hunting season.
— Continued —
NEWS IN BRIEF
EARLY AUGUST
Immediately, many Icelanders ex-
claimed that this was great news!
Fish exporters seemed especially
happy, because—for some reason—
Iceland was not included on the em-
bargo list. The funny thing was, no-
body knew for certain why.
A bureaucratic
oversight?
There was no immediate explanation.
Speculation abounded. Norwegian
commentators wondered whether
the Russians wanted to maintain a
trading partner to provide them with
access to Western markets. Others
theorized that Putin perhaps felt Ice-
land too small and insignificant to
mention? Perhaps he had simply for-
gotten about Iceland, its absence from
the list but a bureaucratic oversight?
Internet commenters howled and
screamed in anger when Katrín Ja-
kobsdóttir, chair of the Left-Greens,
mentioned in a television interview
that it was important to get answers
to this question. What was she trying
to do, remind Putin he had forgotten
to blacklist Iceland? Had leftist ha-
tred of private enterprise finally driv-
en her mad enough to demand Iceland
be added to the list? Why didn’t she
petition Obama to go bomb Iceland
along with ISIS in Iraq, while she was
at it?
As if public debate about why Ice-
land had not been included in the em-
bargo might tip Putin off.
Most Icelanders, however, sus-
pected the real reason for Iceland’s
omission from the list were the diplo-
matic efforts of one President Ólafur
Ragnar Grímsson.
Or: A personal foreign
policy bet paying off?
According to the Icelandic consti-
tution, the office of the president is
purely a ceremonial one—the presi-
dent wields no formal power. Ólafur
Ragnar has spent his presidency try-
ing to change this, especially when it
comes to the international stage.
Critics have blasted Ólafur Rag-
narfor meddling in Icelandic foreign
policy and for cosying up to undemo-
cratic strongmen and human rights
violators. Ólafur Ragnar has, in turn,
argued that Icelandic interests are
best served by seeking closer ties
with rising industrial powers, espe-
cially China, India and Russia.
The president’s friendly relation-
ship with Russia and Putin have
irked critics the most. In February,
he declared in an interview with a
Russian newspaper that St. Peters-
burg was “the Capital of the Arctic
Region.” When
foreign heads of
government and
ministers refused
to attend the Sochi
Winter Olympics,
in protest of Rus-
sian human rights
violations and an-
ti-gay legislation,
Ólafur Ragnar
paid Putin a visit,
to re-affirm the
good relationship
he had built be-
tween the nations.
This spring, Óla-
fur Ragnar cen-
sured the Norwegian State Secretary
for criticizing Russian action in the
Crimea at a conference about Arctic
policy.
Foreign policy basics
While some feel it makes no sense for
the president of Iceland to side with
Russia against our Nordic brethren
and criticize him for inflating the
power of the presidency by meddling
in foreign policy, his personal efforts
are firmly grounded in Icelandic po-
litical tradition. In fact, it they are an
attempt to re-capture the central es-
sence of Icelandic foreign policy dur-
ing the Cold War: Foreign policy for
profit.
Throughout the Cold War, Icelan-
dic politicians did their best to lever-
age Iceland’s strategic position in the
middle of the Atlantic into favourable
trade deals that would bring cheap oil
and access to profitable export mar-
kets for herring and frozen fish prod-
ucts in the Soviet Union and the US.
During WWII, Iceland had discov-
ered that great power conflicts could
be a huge boon to small nations that
played their cards well. Exporters
had reaped a windfall during the war,
and due to its stra-
tegic location, Ice-
land still received
the largest Marshall
Plan aid package of
any war-torn na-
tion, per capita. Af-
ter the onset of the
Cold War, Icelandic
politicians sought
to play both sides
by keeping open
the possibility of
leaving NATO and
kicking out the US
military base. Thus,
Icelandic politi-
cians were able to
profit from international tension.
The end of the Cold War and the
departure of the US military meant
the death of this policy. Some believe
the answer is to join the EU, that Ice-
land should align itself with those na-
tions with which it has its closest his-
torical ties. Ólafur Ragnar’s foreign
policy rejects this premise. Instead,
he feels Iceland should seek new al-
lies who might be interested in closer
cooperation with Iceland.
Until now, Ólafur Ragnar has had
preciously little to show for these ef-
forts.
It remains to be seen whether Ice-
landic exporters really profit from
having privileged access to the Rus-
sian market, and whether Putin will
collect on this act of friendship.
Last week, the Russian government announced they
would respond to Western sanctions over the situation
in the Ukraine with some economic sanctions of their
own—a full embargo on food imports from the EU, the
US and several other Western countries. Norway, which
is on the list of embargoed countries, is hit especially
hard, Russia being the single most important market for
Norwegian seafood exports last year.
Foreign Policy
For Profit
Words by Magnús Sveinn Helgason
Magnús Sveinn teaches economic history
at the University of Bifröst
“When foreign heads
of government and
ministers refused to
attend the Sochi Winter
Olympics, in protest of
Russian human rights
violations and anti-gay
legislation, Ólafur Rag-
nar paid Putin a visit, to
re-affirm the good re-
lationship he had built
between the nations.”
Opinion | Politics
Does President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson just do whatever he feels like all the
time? Is that cool? Is it maybe his right, him being president and all? Thoughts,
threats & treats: letters@grapevine.is