Nationalism and dictatorship : the 1982 Falkland Islands crisis

The goal of this paper is to re-examine the circumstances of the Falkland Islands crisis, caused by the Argentine annexation of the archipelago in 1982. It challenges the popular belief that the Falklands invasion was only aimed at distracting the society from the poor conditions of living caused by the deteriorating economy and lack of democracy. The paper takes into consideration a third factor: nationalism of the Argentine armed forces. The article takes both the domestic and international contexts of the Falklands crisis into consideration and presents how nationalist attitudes of the Argentine military influenced the Falklands conflict in 1982.