• metermatic26@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I expected them to vote as much. Iceland is a tiny country that relies mainly on fishing. And it’s not like the smaller mainland European nations, who heavily rely on their larger neighbors for trade and defense.

    The vote also seems to have been prompted by fears of US aggression. Iceland is already in NATO so (on paper) it benefits from collective defense. Joining the EU might cement defense commitments by mainland countries, but Iceland will still need to invest heavily in national defense for that to realistically protect them from a belligerent America.

    • golli@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      but Iceland will still need to invest heavily in national defense to realistically protect them from a belligerent America.

      To me this just doesn’t seem feasible for a country like Iceland. Imo there is a threshold that needs to be reached before any level of protection is achieved and imo Taiwan is basically the only small country that managed to reach this point. But what it took to get there is being the linchpin for the most important global industry.