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Beyond Small-State Leadership. A Looping Analysis of Iceland's 2019 Joint Statement on Saudi Arabia at the UN Human Rights Council

Jóhannsdóttir, Jónína Ósk LU (2026) MRSM15 20261
Human Rights Studies
Abstract
On March 7th 2019, Iceland delivered a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 36 states, publicly condemning Saudi Arabia's detention of ten named women human rights defenders and calling for accountability in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The intervention is widely cited as an instance of small-state leadership, but whereas the small-state diplomacy literature accounts well for the form the intervention took, it leaves its substantive content unexplained. This thesis asks to what extent Iceland's role in advancing Council scrutiny of Saudi Arabia can be understood as the outcome of a looping interaction between civil society advocacy and small state diplomacy. Drawing on Halme- Tuomisaari's ethnographic... (More)
On March 7th 2019, Iceland delivered a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 36 states, publicly condemning Saudi Arabia's detention of ten named women human rights defenders and calling for accountability in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The intervention is widely cited as an instance of small-state leadership, but whereas the small-state diplomacy literature accounts well for the form the intervention took, it leaves its substantive content unexplained. This thesis asks to what extent Iceland's role in advancing Council scrutiny of Saudi Arabia can be understood as the outcome of a looping interaction between civil society advocacy and small state diplomacy. Drawing on Halme- Tuomisaari's ethnographic theory of looping, the analysis operationalizes the framework as a four-stage process and traces that process through the documentary record. The method is qualitative documentary analysis with a process-tracing structure, supplemented by a semi- structured interview with two Icelandic foreign service officials. The thesis shows how civil society vocabulary and framings consolidated before HRC40 migrated into the joint statement with substantial textual fidelity and were reactivated as resources for renewed mobilization afterward. (Less)
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author
Jóhannsdóttir, Jónína Ósk LU
supervisor
organization
course
MRSM15 20261
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Human Rights Council, small state diplomacy, looping, civil society advocacy, documentary analysis, Iceland, Saudi Arabia
language
English
id
9248183
date added to LUP
2026-08-24 10:27:20
date last changed
2026-08-24 10:27:20
@misc{9248183,
  abstract     = {{On March 7th 2019, Iceland delivered a joint statement at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of 36 states, publicly condemning Saudi Arabia's detention of ten named women human rights defenders and calling for accountability in the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The intervention is widely cited as an instance of small-state leadership, but whereas the small-state diplomacy literature accounts well for the form the intervention took, it leaves its substantive content unexplained. This thesis asks to what extent Iceland's role in advancing Council scrutiny of Saudi Arabia can be understood as the outcome of a looping interaction between civil society advocacy and small state diplomacy. Drawing on Halme- Tuomisaari's ethnographic theory of looping, the analysis operationalizes the framework as a four-stage process and traces that process through the documentary record. The method is qualitative documentary analysis with a process-tracing structure, supplemented by a semi- structured interview with two Icelandic foreign service officials. The thesis shows how civil society vocabulary and framings consolidated before HRC40 migrated into the joint statement with substantial textual fidelity and were reactivated as resources for renewed mobilization afterward.}},
  author       = {{Jóhannsdóttir, Jónína Ósk}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Beyond Small-State Leadership. A Looping Analysis of Iceland's 2019 Joint Statement on Saudi Arabia at the UN Human Rights Council}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}