Acronyms that contain the term cod wars  Page #2

Cod Wars

The Cod Wars (Icelandic: Þorskastríðin; also known as Landhelgisstríðin, lit. 'The Coastal Wars'; German: Kabeljaukriege) were a series of 20th-century confrontations between the United Kingdom (with aid from West Germany) and Iceland about fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with an Icelandic victory.Some Icelandic historians view the history of Iceland's struggle for control of its maritime resources in ten episodes, or ten cod wars. Fishing boats from Britain have been sailing to waters near Iceland in search of their catch since the 14th century. Agreements struck during the 15th century started a centuries-long series of intermittent disputes between the two countries. Demand for seafood and consequent competition for fish stocks grew rapidly in the 19th century. The modern disputes or wars began in 1952 after Iceland expanded its territorial waters from 3 to 4 nautical miles (7 kilometres) based on a decision by the International Court of Justice. The United Kingdom responded by banning Icelandic ships landing their fish in British ports. In 1958, after a United Nations conference at which several countries sought to extend the limits of their territorial waters to 12 nmi (22 km) at which no agreement was reached, Iceland unilaterally expanded its territorial waters to this limit and banned foreign fleets from fishing in these waters. Britain refused to accept this decision. This led to a modern series of confrontations with the United Kingdom and other western European countries that took place in three stages over 20 years: 1958–1961, 1972–73 and 1975–76. A threat of damage and danger to life was present, with British fishing boats escorted to the fishing grounds by the Royal Navy while the Icelandic Coast Guard attempted to chase them away and use long hawsers to cut nets from the British boats; ships from both sides suffered damage from ramming attacks. Each confrontation concluded with an agreement favourable for Iceland. Iceland made threats it would withdraw from NATO, which would have forfeited NATO's access to most of the GIUK gap, a critical anti-submarine warfare chokepoint during the Cold War. In a NATO-brokered agreement in 1976, the United Kingdom accepted Iceland's establishment of a 12-nautical-mile (22 km) exclusive zone around its shores where only its own ships could fish and a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) Icelandic fishery zone where other nations' fishing fleets needed Iceland's permission. The agreement brought to an end more than 500 years of unrestricted British fishing in these waters. As a result, British fishing communities lost access to rich areas and were devastated, with thousands of jobs lost. The UK abandoned its "open seas" international fisheries policy and declared a similar 200-nautical-mile zone around its own waters. Since 1982, a 200-nautical-mile (370-kilometre) exclusive economic zone has been the international standard under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The term "cod war" was coined by a British journalist in early September 1958. None of the Cod Wars meet any of the common thresholds for a conventional war, and they may more accurately be described as militarised interstate disputes. There is only one confirmed death during the Cod Wars: an Icelandic engineer, who was accidentally killed in the Second Cod War while he was repairing damage on the Icelandic patrol boat Ægir after a collision with the British frigate Apollo. They collided on 29 August 1973. A trawlerman from Grimsby was seriously wounded on 19 February 1976, hit by the loose cordage after an Icelandic gunboat cut his vessel's net.Several explanations for the Cod Wars have been put forward. Recent studies have focused on the underlying economic, legal and strategic drivers for Iceland and the United Kingdom, as well as the domestic and international factors that contributed to the escalation of the dispute. Lessons drawn from the Cod Wars have been applied to international relations theory.

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