Tór Marni Weihe

In the Shadow of Great Powers

The Faroe Islands and North Atlantic Security, 1940–2025

Tór Marni Weihe | 28 March 2026

Introduction

The North Atlantic has returned to the centre of great power competition. For small states and autonomous territories along its edges, this shift raises fundamental questions about security, sovereignty, and strategic positioning.

The Faroe Islands occupy a position of remarkable geographical significance.1 Yet their constitutional status as an autonomous territory within the Danish Realm leaves them in an ambiguous position with respect to NATO obligations and defence arrangements.

The Parasecurity Concept

What I call parasecurity refers to the security diplomacy conducted by non-sovereign autonomous territories — entities that lack formal statehood but nonetheless engage in security-relevant behaviour.2

Conclusion

The Faroese case illustrates the limits and possibilities of parasecurity as a theoretical concept.

  1. The Faroe Islands sit astride the GIFUK gap, the primary route for Russian submarine traffic between the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic. ↩︎

  2. The prefix para- is used here in its Greek sense of “alongside” or “beside”, rather than in the sense of “resembling” or “abnormal”. ↩︎