Nation building

Since the interwar years, foreign observers have regularly portrayed the Nordic countries as well functioning states, successful in solving crises,…

Given the striking similarity of the Nordic societies, it is interesting to note how differently some of them have reacted to the current covid-19…

The “Nordic model” is often presented as a solution to the dominance of neoliberalism and the rise of populism. Populist tendencies within the region,…

In the first decades of the 21st century, some Norwegian commentators have been calling for an increased emphasis on commercial competition in…

Even though the welfare state in the Nordics is under pressure and its design is continuously debated, it has rarely been more strongly supported in…

Iceland was a largely uninhabited island in the northern Atlantic Ocean where Norsemen settled around 870. It began as a ‘free state’ but became a…

Even though Iceland remained under Danish rule, the Icelandic ‘Althing’ was restored in 1845 as a national consultative assembly, and in 1874 the…

In the summer of 2019, the Trump Administration voiced an interest in buying Greenland from Denmark. The historical background for this stretches at…

After a referendum almost unanimously in favour, Iceland was declared an independent republic on 17th June 1944 at Þingvellir. Denmark did not,…

Read a potted history of Iceland from the Vikings to today.