Editing Cod Wars (section)

== Scholarship ==
The term "Cod War" was coined by a British journalist in early September 1958.<ref>{{Cite book|title = British Trawlers and Iceland 1919–1976|last = Thór|publisher = |year = 1995|page = 182}}</ref> None of the Cod Wars meet the threshold for a conventional [[war]],{{Efn|Iceland has never participated in a full-scale war.<ref>{{Cite web|date=14 July 2017|title=From Iceland – Ask A Historian: Has Iceland Ever Been Involved in Any Wars Or Conflicts|url=https://grapevine.is/mag/interview/2017/07/14/ask-a-historian-has-iceland-ever-been-involved-in-any-wars-or-conflicts/|first=Johanna |last=Eriksson|access-date=17 October 2020|website=The Reykjavik Grapevine|archive-date=20 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020151556/https://grapevine.is/mag/interview/2017/07/14/ask-a-historian-has-iceland-ever-been-involved-in-any-wars-or-conflicts/|url-status=live}}</ref>|name=|group=}} and are more accurately described as [[militarised interstate dispute]]s.<ref name="Steinsson2016" /><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Fishing in the mild West: democratic peace and militarised interstate disputes in the transatlantic community|journal = Review of International Studies|date = 1 July 2008|issn = 1469-9044|pages = 481–506|volume = 34|issue = 3|doi = 10.1017/S0260210508008139|first1 = Gunther|last1 = Hellmann|first2 = Benjamin|last2 = Herborth|s2cid = 144997884}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Time to Fight: Government Type and Conflict Initiation in Parliamentary Systems|jstor = 3176313|journal = The Journal of Conflict Resolution|date = 1 October 2001|pages = 547–568|volume = 45|issue = 5|first1 = Michael J.|last1 = Ireland|first2 = Scott Sigmund|last2 = Gartner|doi = 10.1177/0022002701045005001|s2cid = 154973439}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Institutional Constraints, Political Opposition, And Interstate Dispute Escalation: Evidence from Parliamentary Systems, 1946–89|journal = Journal of Peace Research|date = 1 May 1999|issn = 0022-3433|pages = 271–287|volume = 36|issue = 3|doi = 10.1177/0022343399036003002|first1 = Brandon C.|last1 = Prins|first2 = Christopher|last2 = Sprecher|s2cid = 110394899}}</ref> 

A 2016 review article found that the underlying drivers behind the desire to extend fishery limits were economic and legal for Iceland, but were economic and strategic for the United Kingdom.<ref name="Steinsson2016">{{Cite journal|last=Steinsson|first=Sverrir|date=22 March 2016|title=The Cod Wars: a re-analysis|journal=European Security|volume=25|issue=2|pages=256–275|doi=10.1080/09662839.2016.1160376|s2cid=155242560|issn=0966-2839}}</ref> It, however, argues that "these underlying causes account for the tensions but are not enough to explain why bargaining failure occurred".<ref name="Steinsson2016" /> After all, the outbreak of each Cod War was costly and risky for both sides.

Several factors are mentioned to explain why bargaining failure occurred.<ref name="Steinsson2016" /> The nature of nationalism and party competition for Iceland and pressure from the trawling industry for Britain are reasons that both sides took actions that were of noticeable risk to their broader security interests. Interdepartmental competition and unilateral behaviour by individual diplomats were also factors, with the British Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries influencing the British government's decision "more than the Foreign Office".<ref name="Steinsson2016" />

A 2017 study argues that both a combination of powerful domestic pressures on statesmen to escalate and miscalculation by those statesmen contributed to the outbreak of the Cod Wars.<ref name=":0" /> The study argues that Iceland won each of the Cod Wars because Icelandic statesmen were too greatly constrained by domestic politics to offer compromises to the British, but British statesmen were not as constrained by public opinion at home.<ref name=":0" />