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Lethal Seas and “Museum Ships” — Thoughts on Icelandic Culture
Iceland is an interesting place. It’s an island in the north Atlantic that many people think of as small. In fact, Iceland is just under 40,000 square miles, about the same size as Kentucky.
It’s the least densely populated country in Europe and has a population so small they have an app to detect consanguinuity before going on dates. No, I am not making this up.
Iceland also has another peculiarity: No standing army.
Why?
Well, when you are surrounded by very cold ocean and all you have is fish, you don’t need one. (Iceland has engaged in fish wars in the past, which typically consist of fishermen cutting each other’s nets and throwing scathing insults).
The picture above that I caption “the entire Icelandic navy” shows the Icelandic coast guard’s OPVs docked at Reykjavik. They have three offshore patrol vessels, one coastal patrol vessel, one rigid-hulled inflatable boat and assorted small craft. They also have some helicopters and one Bombardier for marine surveillance.
That’s it. That is the entire Icelandic “military.”
Lethal Seas
Iceland is a maritime culture. The land is marginal, and does not produce enough food for the population. Modern…