In 1986, a young Icelandic exchange student studying in the US was asked if she lived in a snowhouse or an igloo? Clearly, the Americans who asked those questions had never been to Iceland!
When Reykjavík, the capital city of this small and beautiful island nation, was chosen as the place for a meeting between the two most powerful world leaders at that time–US President Ronald Reagan and Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev–perceptions shifted quickly as the world’s focus was on Iceland and the hope that these two leaders would negotiate the end of a nuclear stand off that had held the world hostage for decades.
The two leaders met in a modest white house by the sea in Reykjavik for two days–two men with widely different ideologies and world views, and this face to face meeting ended without an agreement. The Reykjavik summit was declared a failure. However, the in person connection and the open dialogue had apparently seeded a trust that would lead, one year later, to the first global agreement on nuclear arms and eventually to the end of the Cold War.
Since that historic meeting in October 1986, other forums for dialogue and negotiations are often referred to as the “Spirit of Reykjavik”. Last week, this spirit was commemorated and re-ignited in a series of forums convened in Iceland by the current President of Iceland, Halla Tomasdottir (who was the exchange student mentioned above). She chose this special time to invite a small group of leaders from civil society, governments, scientists, activists, culture and media to have an open dialogue about the existential threats in today’s world and to imagine together how we address these challenges and shape a better future for all.
Our group on the steps of Höfði House
Photo credit: Pétur Fjeldsted
Standing on those same steps last week, I reflected on that meeting and how great the need is today for dialogue across differences, for new solutions and agreements. With regional conflicts and wars, the threat of nuclear weapons rising again, a nature and climate emergency, and technology potentially outpacing humanity’s capacity to control, the world feels dangerously close to Cold War conditions again. Over the next few days as participants in the Arctic Circle and the Imagine Forum and President Tomasdottir’s leadership circle conversations, we would experience the Spirit of Reykjavik and the courageous leadership that inspires it.
Courageous Leaders are one of the many reasons to admire this country. Iceland has been for many years the most gender equal country by nearly every global index. After all, it was the women of Iceland who inspired the women’s movement in the US and elsewhere when they walked off their jobs and out of their homes to make the contributions of women at every level more visible and more valued. For a full account of this historic moment, please watch “The Day Iceland Stood Still” for the full story.
Iceland was also the first country to democratically elect a woman, President Vigdís Finnbogadóttir and currently has a female prime minister: Kristrún Frostadóttir. At every presentation during our full week of forums, presentations and personal exchanges, women were the leaders and so very impressive. It’s also part of the Icelandic culture to call everyone by their first name, including the President!
President Tomasdottir or Halla, as everyone calls her, and whom I have had the good fortune to know as a friend for many years, continues Iceland’s tradition of groundbreaking, innovative, courageous leadership, committed to carrying forth the “Spirit of Reykjavik”. With the Leadership Circle she convened this past week with her guests, she provided an opportunity to have an open dialogue about many interconnected challenges while inspiring us to imagine together the future that is in our hands to shape, influence and make possible.
To deepen our understanding of what that future needs to be, Halla initiated an innovative dialogue process with the next generation of leaders–Iceland’s young people. She invited all of the high schools and some colleges in the country to convene intergenerational conversations on the topic of what they want their future to look like and what they perceive to be the biggest barriers to that future. More than a thousand young and older people came together on a Saturday for four hours of candid conversations, face to face, no phones or media present.
When they reported back, the list of challenges to the future they desire and deserve started with the impact of social media on their lives and society, emphasizing the intense feelings of isolation and loneliness they were experiencing as social media platforms have replaced in person connections and conversations. They also noted a need for a reform of the educational system to better prepare them for a rapidly changing world, and no surprise for most of us, their reports also referenced a growing concern about the many ways AI would impact their personal and collective futures.
Pictured above: three of the young people who shared the results of the Nationwide conversations and behind them, one of three choirs whose voices filled the beautiful conference center.
In another session of the IMAGINE Forum, I had the responsibility to interview the Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu. She spoke about the precarious situation of the world where many countries have developed nuclear capacity and all the global agreements have expired without successful negotiations. High Representative Nakamitsu also reminded us that no longer are the negotiations between two Superpowers with nuclear capabilities, but the fact that nuclear capacity has been developed in several countries and the threat of use of nuclear weapons–or another nuclear accident as happened at Chernobyl-is once again a serious consideration in nearly all negotiations from trade to conflict resolutions.
Myself and Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu.
We also heard presentations on the interconnectedness of the climate and nature crisis with human health as well as the health of the planet and the impact on human rights everywhere. But still there was hope expressed, reminding us that we do have solutions to all these threats to a healthy, habitable future, and what is needed is urgent responses and for individuals, like each of us, to take up the call for action.
That call to action was articulated when three courageous leaders took the stage at the forum–Mary Robinson, first woman President of Ireland, Slovenian President, Nataša Pirc Musar and President Tomasdottir. While clearly acknowledging the challenges, these three leaders focused on the way forward, agreeing to a new Call from Reykjavik. It’s a powerful statement and I urge you to review, and consider signing it here.
L to R: Mary Robinson, Halla Tomasdottir, and Slovenian President, Nataša Pirc Musar and moderator, Christiane Amanpour
You can hear a small piece of the discussion between these women here.
In Iceland, there is yet another reminder that peace among nations and people is necessary for that shared future to unfold as we can imagine and desire it to be. On the small Viðey island, a short boat ride from Reykjavik, stands the Peace Tower, designed by artist Yoko Ono, with PEACE written in every language. It is illuminated once a year on John Lennon’s birthday, and what a privilege to be there to watch the lights stream up from the tower, illuminating the dark sky. A soft rain had begun to fall and created a kind of rainbow effect in the towering lights. All Together–Icelanders and visitors stood with their courageous leader, Halla Tomasdottir, and sang the famous John Lennon song, IMAGINE.
I imagine for all of us who were privileged to experience this week celebrating the “Spirit of Reykjavik”, that we leave Iceland more inspired and more committed than ever to doing whatever we can through dialogue, connections, influence, and collective action to help shape the future we imagine is possible and make it so.
There is still time and it is in our hands.
Onward!
Pat
As the courageous leader who invited us to Iceland reminds us in that document and in her comments throughout our time together…
““Forty years after two leaders met at Höfði House and helped change the course of history, we gathered in that same room, from different countries, generations, disciplines and walks of life, united by a simple but powerful belief: that our shared future is too important to leave to chance.””
