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Greenland, Iceland and the meltdown of the old order in the North Atlantic

Hosted by the Department of International Relations

In-person and online public event (LSE campus, venue TBC to ticketholders)

Speakers

Professor Gudni Jóhannesson

Professor Kristina Spohr

Discussant

Chair

Dr Jennifer Jackson-Preece

President Trump’s determination to increase American influence and presence in Greenland has generated great interest in the future of the world’s largest island and its surrounding regions in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. While Trumps’ offhand idea of purchasing Greenland is preposterous, it jolted the Danish government and its European NATO/EU allies. At the same time, the evident US-Danish tensions may have increased the Greenlanders’ resolve to move faster towards full independence in the not-too-distant future.

Iceland is Greenland’s closest neighbour in Europe. In 1944, Iceland declared full independence from Denmark, at a time when Greenland was still a Danish colony. When the Icelanders severed their final ties with their erstwhile masters in Copenhagen, there were doubters among the Great Powers about this small nation’s ability to stand on its own feet in a bipolar world. Similar words can be heard today about the capabilities of some 57,000 Greenlanders and their national aspirations when so many have their eyes on the Arctic. This event will focus on the current position and future developments of these two countries in the Arctic and the North Atlantic at large.

Meet our speakers and chair

Gudni Jóhannesson is a professor of history at the University of Iceland. From 2016-2024, he was President of Iceland. In his previous academic career, he focused on Iceland’s diplomatic and political history in the twentieth history up to the present. As head of state, he emphasized the need to maintain a delicate balance between independence and interdependence in the international system.

Kristina Spohr is Professor of International History at LSE. In 2018-20, she was the inaugural Helmut Schmidt Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at SAIS-Johns Hopkins University. She is author and editor of Post Wall, Post Square: Rebuilding the World after 1989. She is currently writing a global history of the Arctic, having held one of the 2023-24 Intl Competition Fellowships at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute in Washington DC.

Jennifer Jackson-Preece is an Associate Professor in Nationalism, with a joint appointment in both the European Institute and the Department of International Relations, LSE. She holds a BA and MA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia and a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford University.

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The Department of International Relations (@LSEIRDept) at LSE is now in its 97th year, and is one of the oldest as well as largest IR departments in the world, with a truly international reputation. The Department is ranked 2nd in the UK and 5th in the world in the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2024 tables for Politics and International Studies.

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This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience. 

For the in-person event: Members of the public, LSE students, staff and alumni can request one ticket via the online ticket request form which will be live on this listing after 10am on Monday 28 April until at least 12noon on Tuesday 29 April. If after this time we have received more requests than there are tickets available, the line will be closed, and tickets will be allocated on a random basis to those requests received. If we have received fewer requests than tickets available, the ticket line will stay open until all tickets have been allocated. You will be notified within 2 working days whether your ticket request has been successful.

For the online event: Registration for this event via LSE Live will open in mid April.

For any queries email events@lse.ac.uk.

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