World · NATO ally · ArchiveIceland: The NATO Ally With No Army Guarding the Atlantic GateAired August 9, 2026 at 12:53 PM UTCWritten September 7, 2026 at 9:26 PM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:00Iceland is the only NATO member without0:02an army of its own, yet it sits on the0:04alliance's most exposed choke point.0:06[music] Its entire defense rests on0:08treaty, not troops. The closest thing0:11Iceland has to a military is [music] the0:12Icelandic Coast Guard, now in charge of0:15Keflavik Airfield, a civilian service0:17overseeing an airfield built for a0:18superpower.0:19>> [music]0:19>> Iceland lies on the Greenland-Iceland-UK0:22Gap, the narrow naval passage between0:24the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic.0:26During the Cold War, Soviet Northern0:28Fleet submarines [music] based in0:29Murmansk had to transit that gap to0:31reach the North Atlantic, turning a0:33country with no standing forces into a0:35front line. That geography defined0:37Iceland's bargain from the start.0:39[music] Iceland joined NATO in 1949 as0:41one of 12 founding members, breaking0:43neutrality despite street protests, and0:46in 1951 signed a defense deal that gave0:48US forces use of Keflavik to hold the0:50gap. For more than half a century, the0:53American presence was Iceland's de facto0:55army until the withdrawal in 2006 after0:58Washington assessed the threat had0:59ended. A departure many Icelandic1:02politicians experienced as betrayal.1:04That [music] history now collides with1:05renewed pressure. Donald Trump has1:07repeatedly threatened NATO, even with1:09leaving the alliance, reopening whether1:12the guarantee that has substituted for1:13an army will hold as the GIUK passage1:15[music] regains strategic weight. The1:17stakes are concrete for a nation that1:19has never fielded an army but guards the1:21Atlantic's narrow gate. With a civilian1:23Coast Guard [music] at Keflavik while1:25its principal protector signals the1:27alliance itself may be negotiable,1:29security rests entirely [music] on1:31treaty and geography. An armyless ally1:33must now rely on a Coast Guard at the1:35[music] same runways that once hosted US1:37forces, watching the gap Soviet1:39submarines once had to cross, and that1:42is again central to alliance defense.Explore with HeyDexThe shortThe short ↗