Argentina vs Great Britain: the trajectory of one conflict

Abstract

40 years ago, on April 2, 1982, Argentina made a failed attempt by military means to establish sovereignty over the archipelago in the South Atlantic, which was under the jurisdiction of Great Britain. The war was the result of a two-century dispute over the ownership of the islands. Upon joining the UN in 1945, Buenos Aires loudly announced its claims to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and began to seek from the international community to recognize its claims as legitimate. Since then, the problem has been a red thread through the history of the country. The policy of the Argentine authorities on the issue of disputed territories developed with a pendulum dynamic. Periods of de-escalation of the conflict and the development of cooperation with Great Britain, coupled with a friendly attitude towards the islanders, were replaced by phases of the dominance of irreconcilable discourse with a strong demand for the “termination of the colonization policy” by the British authorities. Relations between Argentina and Great Britain after the end of hostilities can be divided into several stages. Regardless of the direction of the course of the next government, the issue of sovereignty over disputed territories has never been removed from the agenda. The Argentine side certainly used the “Malvinas question” as an instrument of domestic policy. Currently, the conflict is in a latent phase with no prospect of an early resolution.