Bernard Spolsky's theory that any independent nation's language policy is driven by is national ideology, its sociolinguistic situation, English in the globalisation process, and the internationally increasing concern for minorities' linguistic rights, appear to have driven Icelandic language policy, save in issues of linguistic minority rights. Instead, Icelandic language policy discourse discloses a self-reflexive concern for minority rights whereby Icelandic is discursively placed as needing protection in the global language ecology. Therefore, the paper explores how Spolsky’s theory may be improved to explain non-rights-based approaches to national language policies.