The purpose of this thesis is to study and bring to light new ideas regarding the UK’s overseas territory of the British Virgin Islands and Denmark’s overseas territory of the Faroe Islands. The purpose is not to necessarily draw comparison between the two. but share the ideas of each with the other. In the post-colonial world where in general only such small islands remain left of what were once bigger empires, very little scientific work has been done on the subject of what kind of relationship such territories now enjoy with their former colonial masters. The author is furthermore not aware of any academic work being done before where these two territories are drawn together.

This thesis is split into six parts. The first and last being the introduction and conclusion while section two will explain the scientific method in which the thesis is carried out. Sections three and four provide the background and explanation of theory which are then applied to against each other and the research question in section five which is the analysis. The analysis in itself is split into four sections in order to effectively break down and answer the questions raised.
The background sections provide information regarding each of the territories economic, social and political situation. Such information ranges from statistics regarding imports and exports and unemployment, to international political links and education systems.
The theory section provides overview of the two theories which will be applied in the analysis as well as provides some preview as to what can be expected to be discovered during the analysis.
The analysis and conclusion will ultimately bring about mixed responses to the research question: Both territories show certain features which characterise it as being dependent on the United Kingdom and Denmark respectively and certain statistics and data as well as the theories bring about ideas as to how the current political and economic situation put both territories in the economic situation in which they currently sit. The theories and data are used together to draw these conclusions. Both territories are ultimately still dependent, in some senses economically and in some senses politically and to a lesser extent socially. However, both show signs of change and signs of an ability for the current status-quo to move in the medium-term future if certain changes are brought about locally.
Recommendations for further research could involve having more direct contact with officials in each territory. Similar British Overseas Territories could also be studied to see if they hold similar characteristics to the British Virgin Islands; namely including the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man. Furthermore, French or Dutch overseas territories could be studied in order to bring about some comparison as to the different models that former colonial countries now use with their former colonies.