The main motive behind the survey presented in this working paper is to examine how people in the Faroe Islands relate to foreign policy, defense and security issues. This is the fourth survey in a series of surveys conducted in Greenland, Iceland and Norway, and all surveys are financed by the German think tank Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. This survey is the first systematic and scientific study aiming to examine how people in the Faroe Islands relate to pressing foreign policy, defense and security issues, and we would like to express our gratitude to the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung for enabling this survey.
It should be emphasized immediately that the survey was carried out in November/December in 2021 before the recent escalation of the conflict in Ukraine and the Russian invasion. Some tentative results show that people in the Faroes
- are largely pro-western and pro-NATO regarding security and defense issues
- support the instalment of a new military radar in the Faroes and perceive NATO as a natural shelter
- perceive growing Chinese power with skepticism
- perceive Russia as an important trade partner but not as a political ally
- are not immensely concerned about geopolitical security threats in the region
- have a positive perception of the EU without supporting EU-membership
- worry about climate change and environmental pollution
- are shaped by self-reported ideology in their views on foreign policy and security. People on the right are generally welcoming more cooperation with both the US and Russia, while people on the left are generally more skeptic
However, these tentative findings are not uniform, and as the results reveal, different interpretations are certainly possible. Besides the findings presented in this working paper, the number of respondents replying ”I don’t know” is relatively high compared to other surveys about politics and society in the Faroe Islands. This finding might indicate that for a relatively large group of people, foreign policy, security and defense issues are not very present in people’s everyday lives despite media coverage and public debate.