Overview
- Authors:
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Robert P. Wheelersburg
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Department of Sociology and Anthropology (retired), Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, USA
- Presents a possible future scenario for the security of Iceland and the Arctic
- Provides recommendations for security against rogue states, terrorists and criminals
- Insights from a specialist in Icelandic and Swedish security measures
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
About this book
This book outlines a recommended Icelandic security force as part of the country’s defence against sub-strategic threats such as human trafficking by criminals or border incursions by other states. It also tests the recommended security force through the development of four different hypothetical scenarios in the year 2030 designed to show the force’s successful implementation. Melting of the Arctic ice pack, and the opening of the Transpolar Sea Route around 2025 could lead to an increase in traffic into the North Atlantic from the Pacific (and vice versa). That movement is predicted to bring a massive influx of tourists, business interests, and government entities into the region. Along with legitimate uses of the new shipping lanes, the opportunity for terrorists, criminals, and rogue states to travel in and around the Arctic could lead to increased smuggling, violence, and sovereignty disputes (i.e., seizing uninhabited terrain). A review of Iceland’scurrent security policies indicates that the parliament provided the legal framework to create the recommended security force with the 2016 Parliamentary Resolution establishing a National Security Policy for Iceland. Many scholars and government officials believe that the Iceland public would not support a security force culturally. Yet, recent surveys reveal that many Icelanders could accept a security force to protect them from sub-strategic threats, especially if the increased security could be attained without the intervention of foreign military forces. The recommended security force utilizes Icelandic search-and-rescue volunteers and Reservists to increase the protection of the country funded by its full NATO contribution.
Authors and Affiliations
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Department of Sociology and Anthropology (retired), Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, USA
Robert P. Wheelersburg
About the author
With nearly five decades of research and military experience in the Arctic, Robert Wheelersburg is uniquely prepared to discuss security policy in the Nordic and North Atlantic Regions. He holds a Ph.D. from Brown University in Anthropology and Circumpolar Studies and has conducted fieldwork among Saami reindeer herders in Sweden and Russia (Kola Peninsula) for over twenty years, along with fieldwork and archival work in Denmark, Iceland, and Finland for nearly thirty years. Dr. Wheelersburg received three Fulbright Scholarships; two to Umea University's Arctic and Saami Studies Departments and one to the University of Iceland's Centre for Arctic Policy Studies. He has obtained several grants to conduct his research including funding from such organizations as the U.S. National Science Foundation's Arctic Social Science Program and the American Scandinavian Foundation, publishing several articles in journals like Arctic Anthropology, Polar Geography, Arctic, and Polar Record. Dr. Wheelersburg also served as a U.S. Army officer assigned to NATO as an intelligence, civil military operations, and disaster assistance liaison officer for twenty five years, performing duty in northern Germany, Iceland (as a member of the Icelandic Defence Force), and as an exchange officer with the Swedish Rangers.
