Why doesn't Iceland have an Army?

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While there are a few countries that don’t have militaries, these are generally micronations. There is one exception though, Iceland. With a population of almost 400,000, they are by far the largest country to forgo maintaining their own military.
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[@LtexprsGaming]

Just a sidenote, Puerto Rico shouldn't necessarily be included in the list of countries without armies because 1.) They are a territory of the United States and 2.) Puerto Rico has a National Guard which functions almost like a standing army.

[@perfsev]

They also have a small state guard on top of the national guard. (State is in the name). Only a few actual states even have these at all.

[@whoishim2998]

Yeah lol their army would be the US military….

[@thescotchirishman3373]

@@perfsev it stops when the "state" recognizes itself as a territory. And when the majority of the population votes for statehood. (In the American context of statehood not literal) in fact the island runs a deficit so its whole infrastructure or lack their of is totally reliant on the USA.

[@jakeorb771]

Another Sidenote: Costa Rica also has a population of ~5 million. and disbanded their millitary shortly after WWII. Making Costa Rica one of the largest countries with no army, and certainly larger than iceland.

[@TRDPaul]

The majority of "countries" on that list were just territories of other countries

[@ryanmatthews9757]

"Iceland are by far the largest country without their own military" Costa Rica: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@ShadowTani]

Largest by landmass, not by population.

[@livonian_knight9351]

@@ShadowTani i hope he meant that

[@icelandinreallife2042]

@@ShadowTani Greenland is also listed there at the beginning so... But they are still a part of the Kingdom of Denmark so, perhaps Iceland is the largest sovereign country to not have a military? Idk.

[@owenlindkvist5355]

Yes. Costa Rica, like all Central and South American countries are a joke.

[@EstebanVicenzi]

@@ShadowTani technically correct, the best kind of correct... did you include territorial waters from Isla del Coco? Are you refering to terrritory or landmass?

[@jonasnyman8189]

Iceland is also extremely important to Nato even without a standing army. They are the perfect layover and airbase from North America to Europe in case an armed conflict would ever require North American troops to be sent to Europe. And vice versa, it would be equally useful for powers trying to attack the North American continent by air from the Atlantic, in case airways through the arctic circle are not open.

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

Indeed. The UK and then the US annexed them during World War II as Iceland was too important from a geostrategic perspective to allow it to fall under German control.

[@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022]

@@TheLastAngryMan01 annex is a specific term that announces a previously foreign territory is now your own. WW2 was the case of occupation, not annexation.

[@TheLastAngryMan01]

@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 Well thank you, Captain Pedantic.

[@Jay_Johnson]

@@TheLastAngryMan01 That is not just a semantic difference those are very different things.

[@iche9373]

@@TheLastAngryMan01 Captain Ignorance, that's not pedantic. An annexation is always an act of imperial aggression against another sovereign country and thus at the same time against the inviolability of our unipolar world order (UN).

[@Catokawaii]

Wait why did you say the one exception is Iceland when you put Costa Rica on your list, and they have a much higher population lol

[@mnxs]

And Panama. Neither of the two fits the criteria of a micronation, nor are they dependencies.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

@@mnxs True, but their "non-military" standing units (various national guard, coast guard and police forces) are quite militarized themselves and probably stronger than a few actual militaries of the world. That is why I don't think they would qualify. Sure, you don't call them "military", but that's just nomenclature. I mean, US National Guard is also not a branch of the military officially, yet you can bet there are very few actual militaries in the world that US National Guard can't defeat. In short, just because something is not specifically called a military, does not mean that it isn't one. And vice versa.

[@perfsev]

Puerto Rico is a weird choice too, ignoring that they're US citizens with the US military, they do actually have their own small military, and a national guard unit.

[@wihenao]

it's called eurocentrism. The assumption that only Europe matters, specially since this is a European channel.

[@wihenao]

@@Wustenfuchs109 Well. It's on the list, so it certainly qualifies.

[@ouafallouz]

Costa Rica and Panama are not micro-nations yet they still don't have an army. I would argue that it's even more impressive in their case given their population (5M for Costa Rica, 4.5M for Panama) and their regional environment (tensions, crime, drugs, land border with unstable nations, etc...), whereas Iceland has a really small population (400,000) and no land border with anyone.

[@martinschlegel1823]

But both don't have "nothing". Having or not having military can be somewhat muddy. Japan doesn't call it's army an army but something like territorial defense forces. Costa Rica a) is part of the US and b) has a National Guard which basically is an army. I mean, the size difference does matter, US, Germany, France, China, all of them probably could in theory invade Iceland just with their police force without using any actual military (well, maybe not because the police has no landing boats but if they somehow got there they could...). But I think for many peacefull nations without aggressive neighbours and with good relationships to more powerfull nations, you can nowadays reduce military to "just a coast guard" like Iceland in the case that you're an island or some sort of border guards if you have land borders. You don't need aircraft carriers and strategic bombers if you don't plan on projecting military power into far away lands. Does that reduced military still count as an army? Does that depend on how you want to call it?

[@ouafallouz]

@@martinschlegel1823 Did you really just say that Costa Rica is part of the US? 🤣

[@cristrguacl]

@@martinschlegel1823 You mixed up Costa Rica with Puerto Rico there.

[@theminuskai7453]

I am from Costa Rica, i can tell you the reason we dont have an army is because one of our previous presidents a long time ago abolished the army because he was scared of a coup by the military, since then no one else has bothered to remake the army cuz that money is simply better used elsewhere and also because we havent been ruled by any warmonger dictator unlike our neighbor to the north Nicaragua I dunno why panama doesnt have tho

[@audetnicolas]

Panama has a population of over 4 million, Costa Rica has 5 million ... In a sense Iceland is the micro nation

[@RBN1939]

Iceland: has no army Also Iceland: casually beats the British 3 times in wars over some fish

[@theDavitos]

strong coast guards and sailors with viking blood tend to know about to fight better in sea battle then royal navy.. just one person died in them three wars that was accidental then two ships from each sides rammed together and lot of war damage as icelandic cut nets from uk fishing vessels and pretty warships got rammed into , it didnt help either that uk like their tea time so icelandic did bother them most at that times haha.

[@chriswarr3676]

@@RandomnessTube. he doesn't know if he's British, Irish or Scottish.

[@chriswarr3676]

Hardly a war 😂.

[@TaurusTheCrazyBull]

Ekki reyna að taka fiskinn okkar, við vinnum í vatninu

[@ShivamGupta-sr9zf]

🤣🤣🤣

[@rrni2343]

Because we have effectively weaponized passive aggressiveness to the extent that we defeated an empire in the Cod Wars.

[@anxiousearth680]

Australia take note. This is how you win wars against animals.

[@martinfalkjohansson5204]

@@anxiousearth680 It was about cod, not against cod.

[@anxiousearth680]

@@martinfalkjohansson5204 It was tongue in cheek but I also didn't know that, so thanks.

[@WineZ22]

Is that the official name of the iceland - UK conflict related to fishery? If not, I am disappointed 😞 Cod Wars is definitely a good name for a conflict. Just like the Emu War 😅

[@hermannbridde2118]

I still want to give Britain credit for an awesome answer when asked if they lost the cod wars "we didn't loose, we left!" :D

[@ClassicGreenery]

An Icelander here :) One minor thing I'd like to add. We have a heavily armed SWAT team with around 50 strong.

[@GeorgeVenturi]

more like 50 weak.

[@brianjonker510]

IMO Iceland should make a military contribution to NATO/UN. My idea is something along the line of 100 to 200 people equipped and trained as a field hospital or as MP's

[@adamwaterhouse]

Costa Rica is famous for having no army and has a population of over 5 million.

[@MC-yt1uv]

It depends on how you define the military. Costa Rica has the Fuerza Pública de Costa Rica, which is a gendarmerie, which is kind of like a militarized police force. They perform things like border security for Costa Rica. Iceland has less of a military than Costa Rica.

[@JustBen81]

Costa Rica is even displayed in the list of countries with no military 0:50. Some of the more populous territories in the list aren't independent countries (e.G. Puerto Rico and Hong Kong), but in Addition to Costa Rica there are 3 more countries with a higher population than Island on the list: Mauritius, Panama and the Solomon Islands. So Iceland isn't even close to be the largest Country without a Military.

[@Jay_Johnson]

@@JustBen81 Largest by land area obviously

[@JustBen81]

@@adamwaterhouse corrected it.

[@gandreoliva]

@@MC-yt1uv False: The Fuerza Pública has no defense capabilities (no tanks, no heavy weapons, no combat planes, no armed ships), so it is not a militarized police force. Border security is performed by the Policía de Fronteras, which again, has no heavy weapons. In Costa Rica, only 3 small groups, part of 3 different police forces and under the command of 3 different institutions have "tactical" capabilities (intervening in drug trafficking cases, for example). They can intervene in small, dangerous situations, but they can't defend the country from a foreign attack.

[@komczr]

Costarica and Panama, countries much larger than Iceland don't have their armies. So, it's not true, that Iceland is the biggest country without armed forces.

[@explodethebomb]

Yep, and several of those on the list aren't countries. Really surprising that Puerto Rico doesn't have its own military... (except it kind of does in the form of their national guard)

[@seanolaocha940]

@@explodethebomb Puerto Rico is a US territory so the US military is it's military.

[@explodethebomb]

@@seanolaocha940 Yes, obviously, but TLDR listed them as a country without a military

[@rodrigovegamoreno3211]

Costa Rica has about 4.5M inhabitants; 10x bigger population than Iceland

[@DanielGalimidi]

TLDR doing shoddy work as usual.

[@stuartbarker9373]

Mauritius has a population of 1.3m - over 3 times greater than Iceland. Costa Rica has a population of 5.2m - about 13 times greater than Iceland.

[@My_initials_are_O.G.cuz_I_am]

And Hong Kong has a larger population than both of those combined... I think they should've compared area.

[@nickosq]

One British soldier died during the invasion of iceland (from suicide)

[@Napoleon_Blownapart]

There is a Netflix series "Entrapped", that shows a couple of Icelandic officers investigating murders on a small town. Very interesting. They don't carry weapons and everytime the situation calls for some, there is a special force for the task. I recommend it.

[@KrisoVT]

Iceland might not have military, but no one dares invading because they have Thor (the mountain from GOT)

[@marsveinsson2295]

Fuck little gauge boy. We got hard folks around here.

[@jolindbe]

Almost half of the countries you list as countries without armies are not sovereign - Aruba, BIOT, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Curacao, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, French Polynesia, Greenland, Hong Kong, Macau, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Niue, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, and Svalbard are all dependencies in some sense. Why didn't you also list, for instance, Åland Islands when you were at it (a demilitarized zone with some autonomy belonging to Finland)? Furthermore, several of the actual countries you list are much bigger than Iceland: Costa Rica at 5 million, Panama at 4 million, Mauritius at 1.3 million. Even some of the dependencies listed are (much) bigger than Iceland - Hong Kong (7 million), Puerto Rico (3 million) and Macau (600 000).

[@jolindbe]

Furthermore, that BIOT is listed is quite bizarre, it is basically a US/UK military base in the middle of the Indian Ocean - how does that not count as having an army?

[@jciamretired9767]

informational and interesting video.

[@pattoneill2402]

Who needs an army when you have fire-breathing dragons?

[@michaegi4717]

Hence energy becomes more and more important, this fire breathing dragons might attract some bad guys in the future.

[@blitzburn2871]

It is a tiny Island in the middle of the ocean that gets really bloody cold in the winter. You dont need a army when your location and the logistics of invasion forms such a potent defense.

[@Gardstyle35]

many nations would take iceland over if it wasnt protected by its allies

[@alfredl.b.6631]

Definitely not a tiny island, it is 79% the size of england or in american terms roughly the size of kentucky. Also Iceland has the incredibly strong ability to produce nearly infinite green energy by using the pockets of magma underground to produce enormous amounts of free electricity, which is insanely strong in terms of manufacturing.

[@bababababababa6124]

Honestly, I thought it was obvious why Iceland doesn’t have an army… tldr says Iceland is the largest country without an army even though Panama and Costa Rica were on their list, I think both of those would be a far more interesting video to watch considering they’re in a position where you’d think an army would be necessary

[@hannesproductions4302]

@@alfredl.b.6631 But 80% of Iceland is the higland desert and 2/3 of the population live on 1% of the Islands area. I’m saying the liveable size of Iceland is like 10% of the real size. The farmland isn’t of great quality so you couldn’t support a huge population.

[@alfredl.b.6631]

@@hannesproductions4302 Yes all true! A higher population could only be sustained if arable land in central/southern iceland was improved over time.

[@theoptimisticmetalhead7787]

Iceland is far from the largest sovereign country without a military force. Costa Rica, Panama, and Mauritius all have higher populations. And Vanuatu only has about 70k fewer people. And I keep seeing comments about how they have some sort of militarily comparable force, but in this video Iceland's such forces are discussed too. It's a basic wikipedia search. I know because I remembered Costa Rica off the top of my head, searched up their "Public Forces," and was directed to the wikipedia article "List of countries without armed forces." And all five of the countries I mentioned are on the second list, which is titled "Countries with no standing army, but having limited military forces." As with most cases of eurocentrism I'm sure this was unintentional, but I don't see any other way to view this oversight. And as an aside, I'm subscribed to 4 of y'alls channels, and I love what y'all do. I'm commenting this out of love for y'all, not as a nitpicky "gotcha" shitpost.

[@Sahtoovi]

A big reason to why it works is because Iceland is strategically incredibly important, so Nato basically has to agree to let them stay even without an army. The strategic benefits from controlling the GIUK gap is simply too big to throw away.

[@jwil4286]

I mean, we let Turkey off the hook for even worse things (ask Armenia or Kurdistan [or the Kurdish people] what I mean) for the same reason, so it isn’t unprecedented.

[@Sahtoovi]

@@jwil4286 Yeah, for Iceland it isn't weird in the slightest since Iceland doesn't exactly have a history of genocide and human rights violations like Turkey does.

[@jwil4286]

@@Sahtoovi true. My point is that NATO letting countries off the hook bc they’re strategically important isn’t abnormal.

[@pedrorequio5515]

The reality for Iceland is Simple. You dont have an army, nor have the resources for one, however they are strategically important. They could never have credible force, in the Alliance. But for the Alliance to use their territory it makes them a target because they no longer are Neutral, so the trade off is that they have to protect them, there are some American troops there and they have a deal with Norway that some of their F35 go to Iceland for safe skys operations.

[@owenlindkvist5355]

Well, they are also too busy committing child rape and incest. Priorities.

[@MrHws5mp]

I noticed that you had the Falkland Islands on your list of countries without militaries. This is wrong on two counts. Firstly, the Falklands isn't a country, it's a 'British Overseas Territory', which means it's part of, and has it's foreign affairs managed by, the United Kingdom , but has internal self-government. Secondly, it DOES have an 'army': the Falkland Islands Defence Force (about 100 light infantry recruited from the islands and funded by the local government). The same is true of Montserrat and the Cayman Islands.

[@casey6556]

Most of the “countries who don’t have militaries” on your list are territories of other countries whose militaries they host and rely on, perhaps most notably the Falkland Islands considering there was a whole war about that. Also, Vatican City has a military despite being a micro nation. It’s just small and ceremonial.

[@warbler1984]

Technically soes the Vatican not have a gendarmerie?

[@DavidFraser007]

The Falklnd Islands had it's own little defence force in 1982

[@bmaurus]

I am bound to wonder about such an expression as "was binded"(2:00)!

[@Live.Laugh.Lobotomy]

They’ve got fishermen who can win wars anyway so what’s the point

[@johnleake5657]

If you're refering to the Cod Wars, Iceland does have an armed coastguard.

[@Live.Laugh.Lobotomy]

@@johnleake5657 nice to know I don’t care though

[@johnraven5517]

I am from Iceland and this is all very right information, I even learned some new things

[@karankapoor2701]

Hard to find an Icelandic person online these days

[@Magni87]

@@karankapoor2701 We are everywhere

[@dagasolros3110]

Im Icelander and its all true you have been saying

[@prsimoibn2710]

So between the Bank and the US base, where's Iceland position from these intervenors ?

[@alexfrance500]

From Iceland with a name about as Icelandic as mine ;D

[@reverendroar]

7:34 that sounds like any old fun pub club to me haha

[@theuglykwan]

"children of the situation". That is the most polite term to ever be used to describe such a situation

[@ThorirPP]

While true, I don't think it was really trying to be polite towards the children. Rather, the whole issue about the occupation, and especially the idea of American soldiers hooking up with Icelandic women, was colloquially (both then and even today when talked about in history) referred as "ástandið", meaning "the situation". As such, children born from what was seen as a direct results of the occupation were talked about as "ástandabörn", i.e. "situation children/children of the situation". When "situation" = "the occupation by US soldiers", this term made very much sense

[@kevinbarry71]

I have been to Iceland; nobody in their right mind would want to take the place.

[@Fridrik-]

Oy. We very much want you to want our country. Just don't actually come and take it.

[@bababababababa6124]

@@Fridrik- too cold sorry

[@MrWarimatras]

I have lived there and I would very much want to take that country for my own ! ... just kidding but not really

[@idraote]

I would accept the crown of King and ruler of Iceland but I somehow doubt they would give it.

[@Fridrik-]

@@idraote will you accept “Lord protector of Iceland” ? A title last held by Jorgen Jorgensen.

[@MatthewJBD]

Fascinating

[@christophhanke6627]

0:45 well i'd argue that alongside Iceland Costa Rica would also be a country of langer size without one^^

[@Boop__Doop]

iceland did have a small army once it was based in the westmen islands and if you go to the swimingpool in heimaey you can read about it

[@mrdhaqana4346]

I like tldr .thank you

[@ems4884]

I love that pissy patriotic Icelanders' most offensive pejorative was "children of the situation." Any other nation would have come up with something like "halfbreed bastards" but in Iceland ...nope

[@dennis2376]

Thank you.

[@liversuccess1420]

I was one of the people stationed at Keflavik NAS in 2006. I arrived in January and was gone by July as both the Air Force and Navy withdrew. At the time, the busiest American asset on the island was the squadron of rescue helicopters, which often responded to requests from Icelandic fishing vessels. At that time, the Global War on Terror and OIF were in full swing; Russia was not remotely seen as a threat as Putin was actually somewhat friendly toward the West back then. Had we known what he would become, I think both US and Icelandic governments would've worked harder to reach an agreement on keeping Keflavik as it was.

[@TSEEMOD_618]

There's another exception which is not a Micronation, which is Costa Rica Which has more than 5 mln people and it's in a more turmoiled area than Iceland Same goes Panama, over 4 mln people and got invaded during Noriega's time in 1989 *OK LET'S IGNORE IT AND DUB THEM AS MICRONATIONS*

[@espurr3496]

when your army fits in a photo

[@Bjarni.H]

We need a whole series on the COD wars please!

[@slimee8841]

This list is a bit weird. Costa Rica and Panama are far bigger than Iceland, and shouldn't Japan be included? (Yes I know in practice Japan has an army but that's true for most nations in that list)

[@Luredreier]

There's a couple of other details worth noting. First of all, Denmark signed a international Treaty making Iceland a nonmilitarized zone before Iceland gained independence, while never signed by Iceland they've continued to honour it. Another thing is. Iceland was technically part of Norway for most of the time Denmark ruled on Iceland, basically in Norway we had our own laws, administration, succession laws etc, we just happened to end up with the same kings as Denmark for many, many years, leading to us being a junior partner in the union. Iceland as a result had essentially been ruled by Norway for most of that period when Danish kings ruled. Eventually Norway *was* legally integrated, but it took a long time to fully implement that with shared administration, laws etc. When Norway was ceded to Sweden in 1814 Iceland really got integrated into Denmark. Although as you mentioned, some self rule was given back again some years later...

[@AJGeeTV]

Thanks for making this interesting video. It was very professional, and I learned a lot from it. Well Done! 😀

[@icelandinreallife2042]

It really messes with my mind to hear the words ''Let's look at Iceland, the largest country in the world...'' - Also, great job with the google translate there on 3:35 x'D

[@Knight6831]

03:44 Neutrality meant frigate all after 1939 04:41 frankly it is better than the alternative

[@bjorn7355]

Interesting and to large extend correct. Three issues that were not highlighted. After the US Navy left Iceland - Isavia the governmental cooperation for airports and air navigation management rebuild the runways for dual civil and military purposes - this land-based air carrier is Icelands contribution to NATO defense. The Icelandic coastguard is not just responsible for the naval issues around Iceland but undertakes all technical issues regarding Icelandic defenses. ICRU is an ad hoc organization and the only time people were armed was in Afghanistan which led to not much happiness from other militaries as the ICRU staff is not military trained.

[@gerritvalkering1068]

Reminds me of some funny picture I saw a while ago: "Greenland is north, east, south and west of Iceland"

[@CK-yv6nw]

30 dudes in normal clothes 😂😂😂 that cracked me up

[@cockneyse]

"binded?"?.... Bound!

[@marckthemelon3230]

Weird fact in Iceland the old people used to refer to WW2 as the blessd war as in only then did we go from a bunch of farmers and fishermen to being able to make our own industries today, also that after an wary deadly eruption the Danes floated the idea to have the entire population moved of Iceland. Also that we kinda see ourselves as part of Scandinavia and we carry some adoration to our former overlords (mostly Denmark) so much that learning Danish is mandatory for children from age 10 to 16 and in Eurovision before the new voting system our judges would give Denmark the highest score regularly though I would like to know if these feelings of mutual heritage are seen as the same from the others prospective.

[@Arsenic71]

Ah Iceland. Anyone remember when 10% of the entire population went to cheer on their team in the World Cup? Can't remember which year but fairly recently.

[@gummiogtrausti7947]

I would like to say, there are still an US navy base stationed at reykjavik-keflavik airport..

[@grantorino2325]

1:52 *bound* not "binded." 5:17 *controversial* not "contraversial."

[@geraldmeehan8942]

I had an old friend who served in Iceland during WWII

[@paulcarpenter885]

During the "British invasion"? Very interesting if you've got anymore info

[@geraldmeehan8942]

@@paulcarpenter885 No American occupation. His step son was close friend of my parents. He watched over us while I was doing community service at small local airport

[@user-mz1vo3yt1p]

0:57 I'm pretty sure Costa Rica doesn't have a military, but has way more than 400k people

[@w18853]

Just a side note. The islands of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten belong to the Dutch kingdom. There for the Netherlands is responsible for the defence of these island and there are navy and marine detachements presence on these islands.

[@MarkNealon]

Good video, but I was hoping to see someone about how foreign defence affects political decisions

[@sicily378]

0:50 Costa Rica has 5 million people that is more than 400,000

[@luisdestefano6056]

Little corrections: neither Panama (pop 4 mln) nor Costa Rica (pop 5 mln) have armies. And in English there is no such word as "binded". Bound, please.

[@Tugela60]

They do have armies, they just call them some variation of police forces. They don't have much in the way of heavy weapons but they are still armies.

[@luisdestefano6056]

@@Tugela60 maybe, the point is debatable, but by that metric the pope’s Swiss Guards are an army, and the prince of Monaco has an army, and so does the prince of Liechtenstein.

[@montecorbit8280]

At 1:04 "Iceland is by far the largest country with no army." The list you showed on screen listed Panama. You said Iceland had 400,000 people, Panama has 4.3 million and change.... Did your script writers make a mistake? I'll go back to watching the video now....

[@edwingrande3006]

I’m against to violence or weapons but it’s always safe to have a civil guards an case of unexpected situations or catastrophic events. I will enjoy if is need.

[@berisfordcodd2859]

Costa Rica's population is more than 10 times that of Iceland

[@TheNorfolkman]

When customers kick-off in branches of Iceland here in Britain, the manager can normally deal with it without calling in the military. Lol

[@Skelepun]

As an icelandic person, I'd like to add that Denmark treated us very poorly during their reign. They would not allow us to do direct buisness with other countries, we couldnt make connections ourselves and they kept us in poverty by reselling our exports and controlling food imports. The reason the US had to basically build our entire infrastructure and roads for us in WW2 was because denmark would not fund even the most basic things we needed. We had nothing and when the US came over during ww2 it was basically like getting a beefy friend to stay over at our place so we had the safety to dump an abusive partner.

[@patrickng3534]

Love this channel. All of its presenters speak clearly and at the right speed and tone. Information and analysis they provide is thorough and makes good sense.

[@markthompson180]

That line roughly coincides with the Iron Curtain from the Cold War, so I'm not surprised. Mindsets take a long time to change.

[@Medicine91]

They have The Mountain.

[@jc9054]

LOL..its not so much who you know here in this instance but more about the physical,strategic location of this land mass it appears.

[@markoprvulovic2693]

You listed Vatican, and some other as well, as country without army but, technically, they have :)

[@paulteusner]

But it’s not theirs. It’s Swiss

[@markoprvulovic2693]

@@paulteusner No, they (serviceman) are Swiss by nationality but the Guard does not belong to Switzerland Armed Forces but Vatican City

[@paulteusner]

@@markoprvulovic2693 Ah yeah that makes sense.

[@gudmundursteinar]

Denmark and Norway have about 15 times Iceland's population and a sirmilar in culture and traditions and each has an army of around 25,000. Norwa has one and a half combat brigades (one real and enough other forces to make half a combat brigad in numbers). Iceland would then expect to field 1/10th of a brigade, or about a single company (about 200) of soldiers. Given those numbers that means only light infantry, no mech or arm. It simply makes most sence to deploy our resources in creating a coast guard worthy of a nation of millions rather than having an army, navy, air force and coast guard worthy of a nation of hundreds of thousands. Luxenbourg is probably the best comparison, it has a similar population but no need for a navy and has a fully mobilized army size of about one battallion.

[@mjoelnir1899]

One should not completely disregard the Icelandic coast guard when discussing if Iceland has an Army. Iceland has no land forces, but sort of a Navy. Coastguards are usually counted with the navy at war times. The Icelandic coastguard has two offshore maritime patrol boats, 4,000 + tons, comparable to what Norway uses and similar armed, two smaller vessels, 3 rather big helicopters and an Naval surveillance airplane.

[@mblind]

"An Army, An Airline, and A Beer" - still my fav definition

[@haxney]

That list of "nations without militaries" is... weird. Many of them are colonies or special administrative regions of other countries. For instance, Puerto Rico does have a military: it's the US military. Same with the Falkland islands; if some country, say, Argentina, tried to invade the Falkland islands, then the British military would sail out to stop them, because the Falkland islands are part of the UK.

[@loje248]

I agree. Same as French Polynesia and New Caledonia are part of France and, sadly, Honk Kong is part of China.

[@brunoliddle]

"What makes a Country a Country?" My mind: 'Map Men did an episode about just that thing!' Heads off to watch Map Men episode...

[@luziferiii]

Vatikan State does have some sort of an army: The swiss guards. At least they were used as elite military forces in the past.

[@jc3drums916]

Waiting to see how TLDR explains how the qualify Iceland as the largest country without an army, not to mention all the irregularities in that list of countries...

[@kisselev]

aruba, cuaracao and sint maarten are part of the kingdom of the netherlands, wich has an army

[@MrWarimatras]

what about Costa Rica ? its far larger population wise and yet it doesnt have military either ?

[@oscartango6280]

Costa Rica would be the best example of a serious nation without a military. They dwarf Icelands population (standing at 5.2 million) and are in a far more volatile part of the world

[@chrisclark1761]

i often wonder if countries that appear to have little to no military defence, in fact do have one and they're pretending to be vulnerable.

[@viewer.123]

Not saying that I could do better however I don't know where to start with the inaccuracies of this video

[@ericmyrs]

When Njord is your Navy, and you're an island, do you really need armed forces?

[@kenbell3250]

The full story is that the USA refused to leave Iceland after the war and there was nothing that the country could do about it. So, an agreement was reached that allowed the Americans to have a base in Iceland, but without ready access to Reykjavik. The Americans agreed not to station Black troops on the base and invested millions of dollars in the local infrastructure. In effect, Iceland was in a similar position to most of Eastern Europe with the USSR, but with plenty of dollars which eased the pain.

[@coolaid5272]

that list is confusing, even panama has 4,5 millions inhabitants.

[@tomsmith5584]

While Iceland may be the largest country in land area without a standing army, Costa Rica doesn't have an army either, and it has over 5.1 million people living there compared to Iceland's 372,000.

[@linhlopbaya]

"thirty dudes in normal clothes" sound like a rock band name.

[@HaryanviKashmiri]

kinda ironic cuz when i set my vpn to iceland, i got a ton of icelandic military ads

[@eorlich1]

Today, December 1st, Costa Rica celebrates 74 years without an army.

[@sub-zero_]

My brother has been to Iceland and he says the country is beatiful, love our icelandic brothers🇮🇸🇳🇴

[@georgesdelatour]

There’s a much bigger example than Iceland: Germany. Between 1945 and 1950, the USA rebuilt West Germany as a country which would have a police force but NO ARMY. This was following the terms of the Potsdam Agreement. The reason Germany didn’t wind up permanently disarmed was the Cold War. In 1950, frustrated by the stalemate in the Korean War, Truman decided to rearm West Germany as a way of putting pressure on Stalin and the USSR. Re-armament was actually unpopular in West Germany at the time, and Gustav Heinemann resigned from Adenauer’s government over it. This was because many Germans feared that rearmament would make eventual German reunification less likely.

[@graham1034]

The video calls Iceland the "largest country to forgo maintaining their own military" but then lists Costa Rica, which has over 10x the population size (and double the GDP) and Greenland, which is over 20x in area. So not sure what metric they're using to determine "largest". Many others on this list are also larger in either population or area.

[@soyad9840]

nice

[@crobar1]

Iceland: We have no army, but you are welcome to defend us, also build some roads while defending us

[@JHNielson4851]

The "O" road!

[@dollarcostbackpacker1226]

Why would they need an army? Vikings? Sea monsters? Ice creatures?

[@chriswaldrip2739]

It’s an island populated by Vikings… elves and trolls… do NOT make them angry! Oh, and they have Björk too. :-)

[@Oddingeaa]

Populated by Vikings is a misconception. Some Scandinavians did vikingraid from 800 to 1000 AD. Most of them stayed home.

[@signalshift6676]

as a non english native.. is "binded" actually correct?

[@hetmankp]

It is not, but it does seem to demonstrate the poor state of the British education system.

[@a_literal_lurking_rock]

When did Svalbard become its own country? Isn't it part of Norway?

[@mowabb]

Nobody wants smoke with the winner of the cod wars.

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

what is the smallest country with a (substancial) military? Singapore?

[@reijek990]

Singapore (5 million pop.) or Israel (9 million pop.). Singapore has advanced and modern army but they haven't really had a conflict that shows their actual effectiveness. Israel has a bit more population but we know that their armed forces are effective. Sweden (10 million pop.) also has a relatively strong armed forces and developed military industry for a country of their size and in Europe.

[@sjrescapades2256]

Its odd that you consider Iceland to be the exception on that list and not Costa Rica which has a population of 5.139 million to Iceland's 400,000 especially as it is not protected by NATO and has land borders. I think that would be a more interesting case study.

[@crispyglove]

Costa Rica has a population of 5.2 million. Panama is about 4.5 million. Iceland might be the largest country without a military by land mass, but definitely not by population.

[@emmanuellopez1130]

Costa Rica: what are we to you!?