Tímarit Vörðu #1 – a new journal, and the question of the worthy ally

Hello,

This special edition marks the launch of Tímarit Vörðu, Varða's new print journal on national security. The first issue, published in June under the theme "Verðugur bandamaður" (A Worthy Ally), gathers the foreign minister, Canada's ambassador, a former minister, a former NATO Military Committee representative, and voices from civil society and humanitarian work. Below, a short guide to each piece. The journal is in Icelandic except where noted; translation tools handle it well.

1. Why a journal, and why now

In their introduction, editor and Varða co-founder Kristinn Árni L. Hróbjartsson and guest editor Þórdís Kolbrún R. Gylfadóttir make the case for slowing the debate down: complex questions of national security deserve considered, written argument rather than algorithm-paced exchanges on social media. Iceland's long silence on these matters, they argue, reflected the comfortable certainty that no real external threat existed, a certainty Russia's war and the eroding rhetoric of great powers have removed. The theme "worthy ally" comes from Þórdís Kolbrún's own long-standing formulation: Iceland should be a valuable participant in collective defence, not a passenger.

2. The foreign minister: more pillars, not fewer

Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir writes that a small state's security rests on rules applying equally to large and small, which is why Iceland cannot be a spectator. She points to Alþingi's unanimous adoption of Iceland's first defence and security policy, insists Iceland is "unarmed but not defenceless," and argues that deeper ties with the Nordics, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and the EU strengthen rather than dilute the US relationship. On NATO's spending commitments, she is direct: Iceland is not exempt from the 1.5% defence-related target, and new spending must be "unquestionably defence-related." A quotable aside: one ally called Iceland the best host nation they had visited.

3. From reluctant to worthy ally

Former minister Björn Bjarnason traces the arc from Donald Nuechterlein's 1961 Iceland – Reluctant Ally to today: the 1949 NATO accession riots, the cod wars fought against a fellow ally, the 1974 Varið land petition, the 2006 US withdrawal, and the North Atlantic's return to the centre of allied planning. His core argument is institutional: it was a mistake in 2006 not to overhaul the domestic machinery built around the US base, and a worthy ally is made not by speeches but by a clear chain of responsibility and the state's capacity to execute what it signs up to. "NATO is not a debate club but an alliance of action."

4. Is Iceland a good ally? Yes, no, and it depends

Garðar Forberg, former Icelandic representative on NATO's Military Committee, opens with a story: a late-night Signal message from Odessa, and ten fuel trucks bought near Brussels and delivered to Ukraine's border within a week. Iceland can be fast and resourceful but its defence spending, around 0.2% of GDP, lags even Montenegro, a NATO state a quarter as wealthy. He presses uncomfortable questions: what is Iceland's plan for the 3.5% core-defence pillar, why is helicopter rescue capacity for air-policing rotations still unresolved, and why is not a single merchant ship registered in Iceland? His prescription: invest in force multipliers, consider a reserve force, and accept that the famous Icelandic approach of "þetta reddast" (or, it'll work itself out) is not a strategy.

5. Start at home: security policy needs a public mandate

Sólrún H. G. Proppé argues that the 1.5%-by-2035 commitment, which accounts to tens of billions of krónur annually, rests on a public that has never had to debate security. Unlike Finland, Sweden or Norway, Iceland lacks a tradition of open threat assessment; without a shared understanding of risk, spending appears as disconnected headlines competing with housing and healthcare. Her proposal: regular, published national risk assessments, on the Nordic model. "A society cannot stand for long behind a security policy it does not understand", and trusting the public means trusting them with reality.

6. A dissent: deadly setbacks in the name of security

Birna Þórarinsdóttir, executive director of UNICEF Iceland, offers the issue's counterpoint. Global military spending hit USD 2,887 billion last year, the eleventh consecutive annual increase, while the climate loss-and-damage fund could not raise USD 800 million. She sets Iceland's ISK 500 million in weapons procurement for Ukraine against ISK 130 million for child-protection Barnahús there, and warns of three mutually reinforcing setbacks: destructive capacity over reconstruction, emissions over climate action, and rights rolled back in security's name. Iceland's real strengths, she argues, are its lack of an army, clean energy, and human-rights record: "If not us, who?"

7. Canada's ambassador: credibility is a practice, not a claim

In the issue's English-language essay, Ambassador Jenny Hill draws on Mark Carney's Davos "rupture" speech: "if we aren't at the table, we're on the menu", to sketch how smaller states keep agency in a power-driven world: variable geometry, issue-based coalitions, and credibility demonstrated through visible investment. She details Canada's Arctic build-up, from over-the-horizon radar to new submarines, and argues Iceland demonstrates seriousness differently but no less meaningfully: host-nation support, air-policing facilitation, and a stable operating environment in the GIUK gap are themselves strategic capabilities. Being a credible ally "is not a status, it is a discipline."

8. Practice makes perfect: wargaming the tens of billions

Military historian Erlingur Erlingsson, who leads Varða's tabletop-exercise work, closes the issue with a practical tool for prioritising the coming decade of investment: wargames. He notes the 1951 defence agreement is legally premised on NATO, if Washington left the alliance, it would lapse, and weighs EU accession as a possible additional pillar ahead of the autumn referendum. Tabletop exercises like 2025's "Ísland ótengt," which gathered some 200 experts to game the severing of all subsea cables, break down silos, test decision-making rather than equipment, and cost little. They should, he argues, be a standing part of Icelandic planning.

The full issue is at timarit.varda.org. As ever, feel free to forward to potentially interested parties.