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Iceland's Shelter-Seeking Behavior
From Settlement to Republic

Baldur Thorhallsson (Author), Tómas Joensen (With), Sverrir Steinsson (With), Thorsteinn Kristinsson (With)

9780935995268

Hardback, published 15 August 2021

198 pages, 9 maps - 9 Maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.454 kg

Iceland's Shelter-Seeking Behavior challenges the traditional narrative that Iceland's submission to foreign rule and external relations had catastrophic consequences for the country. It argues that this narrative both exaggerates the costs of external relations and underestimates their benefits. Within the historical context of Iceland's external relations, the book outlines shelter theory, applying its assumption that small polities need economic, political, and societal shelter in order to prosper.

Analysis of Iceland's external relations from the Norse settlement, a little before 900, to the creation of the Republic in 1944 suggests that throughout the period, this island nation enjoyed essential shelter, vital for development and prosperity, which its larger neighbors—Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States—provided. Other international actors, such as Hansa merchants; Dutch, French, Spanish, and Basque mariners; and the Catholic Church, also provided Iceland with important shelter.

Introduction. The Small, Independent, Free, Loving Nation versus the Large, Dominant, Uncaring Foreigners
by Baldur Thorhallsson

Chapter 1. Shelter Theory and Smallness in International Relations
by Baldur Thorhallsson and Sverrir Steinsson

Chapter 2. Iceland's External Affairs in the Middle Ages: The Shelter of Norwegian Sea Power
by Baldur Thorhallsson

Chapter 3. Iceland's External Affairs from 1400 to the Reformation: Anglo-German Economic and Societal Shelter in a Danish Political Vacuum
by Baldur Thorhallsson and Thorsteinn Kristinsson

Chapter 4. Iceland's External Affairs from 1550 to 1815: Danish Societal and Political Shelter Concurrent with a Highly Costly Economic Policy
by Baldur Thorhallsson and Tomas Joensen

Chapter 5. Iceland's External Affairs from the Napoleonic Era to the Creation of the Republic in 1944: Danish Societal and Economic Shelter in an Anglo-American-dominated North Atlantic
by Baldur Thorhallsson and Tomas Joensen

Conclusions. Iceland and Shelter Theory Across History
by Baldur Thorhallsson

Bibliography
Index

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