The Next Phase of the Malvinas/Falklands War - Battle in the Courts?

Certainly, tensions between Argentina and England (especially on the former's account) are never low when talking about the Malvinas/Falklands Islands. Still, this past week, the already-tense language has ratcheted up a few notches. England had decided to begin oil exploration in the sea around the islands, leading to a rush of British companies getting in line to work on the exploratory drilling. Argentina has responded by threatening legal action (perhaps concerned that England would drink Argentina's milkshake?), while Falklanders themselves defended the drilling by saying it will help their economy. Neither the English nor the Argentines seem like they're willing to back down or negotiate on this, so tensions are already running high.

If this were a typical case, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that the two countries involved would come to some sort of agreement, but Argentine-English relations are far from typical, especially when it comes to the islands. Certainly, the islands are in England's control, and it should have sovereignty, but Argentina makes a strong case with regards to the U.N.'s ruling on the "sovereignty dispute." War still seems unlikely, but editorials in England are already reminding readers (perhaps in a pre-emptive cautionary jingoism?) that Argentina's original attack on the islands in 1982 also started off somewhat innocuously, and as the article points out, Great Britain's armed forces are rather thinly spread right now, perhaps making this the best time since the 1980s to attack the islands.

And the fact that Gordon Brown is already trying to "save his skin" and could perhaps use military maneuvers to his advantage a la Margaret Thatcher in 1982 is only half the story. If Gordon Brown thinks he's the only unpopular leader involved, he'd better think again. Her battle with the Argentine Central Bank, questions over her husband's (and ex-president's) financial actions, and unpopular struggles with striking farmers have all led to Cristina Kirchner being unpopular and embattled throughout her administration. An attack on the islands could divert the Argentine citizenry's focus on her policies towards its own nationalism means a war could benefit more than just Gordon Brown (though given the effects of the loss on the Argentine dictatorship in 1983, it is certainly a much riskier move for Kirchner). That's not to say either Kirchner nor Brown wants another war, but both would probably benefit (at least in the short-term) in the face of flagging popularity.

Again, I really don't think this will come to a war. I suspect this will remain a diplomatic war-of-words, perhaps involving courts (though I don't know how that would function), the U.N., or other international arbitration matters. Still, relations between the two countries haven't been this volatile in awhile, and it will be worth seeing what the outcome is in the coming weeks.

Whiteness Concerns, circa 1578

In 1578, George Best, who had accompanied Martin Frobisher on his attempt to find the Northwest Passage, wrote True Discourse of the Late Voyages of Discoverie. In there, he assures the English that America will not destroy their whiteness, as they desperately feared:

"Thus you see, that the cause of the Ethiopians blacknesse is the curse and natural infections of bloud, and not the distemperature of the clymate. We may therefore very well be assured, that under the Equinoxiall [Equator] is the most pleasant and delectable place of the world to dwell in."

I love that as early as 1578, the English are already using tortured logic to justify racism and colonialism while freaking out over their own whiteness.

You just can't make these things up.

From Susan Scott Parrish, American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World, 85.

On This Date in Latin America...The Malvinas War

Today, April 2, 2007, marks the 25th Anniversary of the Malvinas war (which England, America, and Canada in tradition with their imperialist/colonialist history, have continuously referred to as the Falklands War, while the rest of the hemisphere south of the Rio Grande continues to call it the Malvinas), in which Argentina and England went to war over a small chain of islands 300 miles East of the Argentine coast and 7871 miles from London, the seat of Margaret Thatcher's conservative government.

The war marked one of the least promising wars ever in terms of outcome - either Margaret Thatcher's conservatives would come out on top, or victory would go to an Argentine military dictatorship that had killed upwards of 20,000 of its own citizens (some estimate 30,000 people) in the previous 6 years.

Argentina, which had claimed ownership of the islands since 1820, felt that England's possession of the Malvinas since 1833 denied Argentina what was rightfully theirs. In an effort to continue the nationalistic state-building campaigns it had launched since the 1970s (including the 1978 Argentine World Cup victory), Argentina's military junta decided to invade the Malvinas, imagining the British would not respond or contest the issue.

However, facing challenges at home due to economic troubles, Thatcher seized upon the potential nationalistic support such an occupation could provide, and sent the British navy to defend the Malvinas. The British population quickly forgot about their economic woes, celebrating the ridiculous defense of the islands with a jingoistic air not seen since the loss of the British colonies in the mid-20th century. Thatcher's popularity immediately skyrocketed, aiding her and the Conservatives in 1983 elections (as well as gaining much moral and material support from Ronald Reagan in one of the few instances in which he broke with murderous Latin American military states).

The only good outcome of the war was what happend in Argentina in its wake. The military dictatorship, already in trouble due to growing economic problems and increasing pressure on human rights from groups like the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, had begun losing support and control in Argentina, but the undeniable failure of Argentina's military, both in its calculations that England would not seriously resist Argentina's maneuvers and then the military's great mishandling of the war when it arrived led to the almost total collapse of the military junta. The failed effort at nation-building blew up in their faces so severely, they suddenly found themselves completely removed from the executive branch as Raul Alfonsin became the first elected president since the 1970s. While removed from the executive branch, however, the military continued to exercise significant political sway over politicians, a fact which has explained the difficulty in gaining prosecution of those involved in torture and disappearances difficult up to today (thanks in no small part to Carlos Menem's absurd amnesty declaration shortly after his 1990 election).

In comparison to the havoc the Argentine military wreaked against its own population, the casualties of the Malvinas War were releatively small. After just under three months of fighting, 649 Argentines, 255 British troops, and three islanders had left this terrestrial coil between April 2 and the end to hostilities on June 14, 1982, when one of the more useless and stupid wars of the twentieth century finally came to a close.