Nobody does anything for anyone who doesn’t do anything for anyone
Kristinn Árni L. Hróbjartsson writes in Morgunblaðið: we Icelanders lag well behind our neighbours in support for Ukraine and aim to get by with as little as possible on defence, while our allies cut welfare spending to invest in common security.
We Icelanders lag well behind our neighbours in support for Ukraine. As a share of GDP, Iceland spends a third of what Finland has contributed, and seven times less than Denmark.
All the countries we consider our closest partners regard support for Ukraine as part of their own defence and necessary for their security. This understanding underpins Alþingi’s decision of 29 April 2024 to aim for an Icelandic contribution to Ukraine proportionally comparable to those of the other Nordic countries. We are nowhere near meeting this modest goal.
As an independent and sovereign state, we have obligations just as we have precious rights. As a self-respecting society, we should take Alþingi’s decisions seriously.
How poorly we have kept our word to Ukraine is even harder to swallow given that our neighbours and friends have had to sharply increase spending on their own defence preparations on top of their support for Ukraine. These states have pledged to defend every NATO ally, Iceland included, and we Icelanders consider ourselves entitled to benefit from that spending.
This attitude of leaving the cost to others is dangerous unless it changes soon. Recent government plans and memoranda on state investment in security and defence give no cause for optimism. The government foresees no meaningful increase for five years, until the current fiscal plan has run its course. Our defence contribution and capability will therefore largely stand still until then.
Iceland certainly occupies an important strategic location. Icelandic politicians therefore often seem to vie with one another in citing it as a reason to do less and invest less in Europe’s common security. While our neighbours and allies, who have pledged to come to our defence, cut welfare spending to invest in defence, our aim seems to be to get by with as little as possible.
Our Norwegian allies and cousins face a similar situation. The Bear Gap in the Barents Sea, between northern Norway and Bear Island, is one of the first lines of defence and surveillance against Russian submarines. Norway’s location, its proximity to Russia and potential Arctic sea routes make it at least as militarily important as Iceland. But unlike Icelanders, Norwegians treat their location as a reason to do more, not as grounds for a discount.
Our neighbours are funding higher defence spending in various ways. The Netherlands is levying a “freedom contribution” from 2027, a tax increase earmarked for defence, and Estonia and Lithuania have taken a similar route. In 2023, despite large protests, Denmark turned a public holiday into a working day and now spends the revenue on defence. Belgium capped unemployment benefits, previously open-ended, at two years, and Finland is cutting welfare spending, both alongside higher defence contributions. Germany, long attached to one of Europe’s strictest debt rules, amended its constitution to exempt defence spending from the debt brake and now funds its build-up largely through borrowing.
It is hard to see how this can last: our main partners keep enduring hardship and making sacrifices for their security while we fly under the radar. There is little dignity in one of Europe’s richest countries trying to avoid helping defend the international law and rules on which our prosperity rests, and which hold only as long as someone can enforce them.
We rely entirely on the goodwill of like-minded allies, and on their people, often young people, putting themselves in danger to defend our borders, jurisdiction and rights under international law. Should the terrible day come when we have lost control of our own circumstances and must rely on their courage and sacrifice, we will only have made it easier for them to sit it out if we insist on remaining a free rider in world affairs because someone might find our location militarily important.
We will then have to hope that our allies do not adopt the philosophy of Alex from the film Sódóma Reykjavík, whose famous words were: “I don’t do anything for anyone who doesn’t do anything for anyone.”
The author is co-founder and director of Varða, a think tank on national security.
This article was first published in Icelandic in Morgunblaðið on 5 November 2026.
