Malvinas. Argentine Foreign Policy (1989-2015)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate Argentina's foreign policy towards the Malvinas Islands during the period from the presidency of Carlos Menem to the mandates of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The history of Argentine international relations can be understood as a pendulum, at one extreme we find the strong rapprochement to certain hegemonic countries while, on the other, we observe an approximation towards the countries of Latin America. In the analysis of the mentioned period we will pose the following questions: How is each side of the pendulum characterized and what were the reasons for this positioning in the indicated period? What were the strategies that were proposed based on one positioning or another with respect to the Malvinas question? And finally, we will investigate the dynamics of these strategies in relation to costs and benefits for Argentina. The hypothesis presented here is that Argentina's strategy of claims and confrontation over the sovereignty conflict between 2003 and 2015 achieved a better position at the global level in its support than that designed in the 1990s with a proposal for negotiation and intervention by the United States.The objective of this work is to investigate Argentine foreign policy with respect to the Malvinas Islands, during the period between the presidency of Carlos Menem and the mandates of Nestor Kirchner and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. The history of Argentine international relations can be understood as a pendulum, at one extreme we observe a strong approach to certain hegemonic countries while on the other, we see an approach to the countries of Latin America. In the analysis we will try to answer the following questions: how each side of the pendulum is characterized and what were the reasons for that position in the mentioned period? What were the strategies that were raised on the basis of a position or the other with respect to the Malvinas question? And finally, we inquire about the dynamics of these strategies in relation to the costs and benefits for Argentina. The hypothesis presented here is that the strategy in seeking regional support from Argentina on the sovereignty dispute, achieved a better position worldwide in their claims. Otherwise, during the 1990s, with the approach of "carnal relations" has not achieved more than some enhancements without substantial results in the central pose, the discussion on sovereignty of the islands.