Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Page 14

Iceland: Against Nuclear
Weapons, But Not Really
Foreign minister contends weapons ban “not realistic”

Words: Paul Fontaine
Photo: Creative Commons
Iceland is well known for being a
peaceful country with no stand-
ing army. However, that image de-
serves nuance: Iceland is a member
of NATO, and has unquestionably
abided anything NATO wants to
do. Sometimes,
Iceland goes even
further than a lot
of NATO coun-
tries do when it
comes to mi l i-
tarism. Earl ier
t h i s mont h at
the United Na-
tions was one of
those occasions.
It came to light
that Iceland was
not one of the 122
cou nt r ies t h at
approved an in-
ternational ban
on nuclear weap-
ons at a special
session of t he
United Nations.
Iceland's Minister of Foreign Af-
fairs told reporters that he did
not believe the ban was “realis-
tic,” but said Iceland supports a
“nuclear weapons-free world.”
Wait, what?
As RÚV reported, while many coun-
tries approved the ban, many also
chose not to participate. The United
States, for one, harshly criticised
t h e m e a s u r e ,
and Holland was
the only country
to actually vote
against it. Iceland
was amongst the
cou nt r ies t hat
abstained from
p a r t i c i p a t i o n .
“ We h ave
always supported
the notion that
we should have a
nuclear weapons-
free world, and
we want nuclear
weapon s to be
d i s m a nt le d i n
a mutual man-
ner,” M i n i s t er
of Foreig n A f-
fairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson
told reporters. “But it speaks
for itself that the nuclear pow-
ers not participating in this ban
means the practice isn't realistic.”
NATO: Bringers of peace,
lovers of nukes
Guðlaugur added that nuclear
stockpiles have been reduced by
95% since the Cold War, “under
the leadership of NATO.” However,
it bears mentioning that NATO
still possesses the majority of nu-
clear weapons in the world: 7,315
nukes in all, between the United
States, France and the UK. Of these
countries, the US has the largest
arsenal—6,800 nukes—and the
Pentagon’s own “nuclear census,”
released in May 2016, showed that
the reduction of nuclear weapons
actually slowed down during the
Obama presidency; in fact, it slowed
down to a greater degree than dur-
ing any other post-Cold War presi-
dency. Which makes Guðlaugur’s
remarks about a peace-loving,
nukes-hating NATO ring hollow.
When asked whether he will push
for further disarmament within
NATO countries, Guðlaugur re-
sponded that this would be the case.
However, he couldn’t simply leave it
at that, and took his opinions on
nuclear armament a step further.
Mom! Kim has nukes! I
want nukes, too!
“Of course we will do what we can in
the area [of nuclear disarmament],”
the minister told reporters. “And
there is solidarity on this issue
within NATO. That's why nuclear
weapons have been decreasing. But
this is done under the condition that
this is a mutual operation. So NATO
and other countries will not toler-
ate that some other country, like
North Korea for example, is the only
country with a nuclear weapon. I
think that no one would want that.”
Putting aside the great unlike-
lihood that we could ever live in a
world where North Korea is the only
country to possess nuclear weap-
ons, what the Foreign Minister is
illustrating goes beyond Mutually
Assured Destruction (a policy from
the Cold War that ensured an un-
easy peace by the understanding
that both sides could annihilate
one another), and seems to suggest
that it is actually possible to win
a nuclear war. A strange sugges-
tion, not least of all from a Foreign
Minister of the ostensibly most
peaceful country in the world.
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2017
TIME CAPSULE
The
Old
Prison
Words & Photo: Johanna Eriksson
The old prison in Reykjavík, located
just down the street from Hallgrím-
skirkja, pretty much looks like how
one would imagine an old prison to
look, when you think about it: grey,
dark and frankly not the most ac-
commodating edifice in town. But
despite that, one could easily have
missed that it was indeed actually
functioning as a prison until as late
as June 2016, when it said farewell to
its last inmate. Without anything
such as visible guards or a fence,
there was nothing except its gloomy
look to hint about what kind of ac-
tivity was going on inside the thick
stone walls.
The building dates all the way back
to 1874, and between 1920-1949 it
also served as a courthouse. It’s
sometimes referred to as “Nían”
(“The Nine”) due to its street ad-
dress, Skólavörðustígur 9. Time
will tell what the future holds for
the facility.
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“NATO and other
countries will
not tolerate
that some other
country, like
North Korea for
example, is the
only country with
a nuclear weapon.
I think that no one
would want that.”
If North Korea has nukes, so should NATO” -
The Foreign Minister, paraphrased