The End of Iceland's Innocence by Daniel Chartier

Author:Daniel Chartier [Chartier, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Business & Economics, General, Political Science, Political Economy
ISBN: 9780776619439
Google: TJ5VDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Ottawa Press
Published: 2011-03-14T02:39:13+00:00

PART THREE

THE REST OF THE WORLD

SCANDINAVIA

OUR NORDIC FRIENDS

'Nordic support group is making excuses.'

Financial Times, October 7, 20081

Unlike Iceland's highly strategic relations with Russia, its friendship with the other Scandinavian countries—based on a shared cultural and linguistic background—was marked by constraint and guilt during the crisis; yet, in the end, the friendship served the island's interests well. Iceland's ties with Denmark, Sweden, Norway and the Faeroe Islands—the first state to come to its assistance—define Iceland's first perimeter of international influence, a sort of original family circle, a transition zone between the country's interior and the outside world. For lack of other support, Reykjavík has often relied on the assistance of its Nordic 'friends' to show the rest of the world that it benefits from the solidarity of other nations. Thus, when the first signs of Scandinavian aid appeared in spring 2008, Davið Oddsson, Chairman of the Central Bank of Iceland, told foreign journalists that 'the joint action [of the Nordic countries] sent out a strong message that Iceland no longer stood alone'.2 John Zhu of Le Monde interpreted those signs in the same way, stating that 'Iceland... [was] no longer alone'.3

The support from Iceland's Nordic 'brother countries' was a boost to the island's image at a time when it desperately needed it: 'Any demonstration of co-ordinated Nordic support', wrote David Ibison of the Financial Times, 'would represent a significant step forward for Iceland as it seeks to restore its international credibility'.4 Reykjavík acknowledged that this friendship had saved it from greater peril in a Central Bank news release, which stated in early 2009 that its neighbours were the only ones to respond to its calls for help:

No other central banks apart from the Nordic ones were prepared to lend their support in 2008, in spite of the Central Bank's requests and in spite of the public declarations from the international community.5

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