[LINK] "The Falklands War: Causes and Lessons"

[rfmcdonald]

Jason McClure's study "The Falklands War: Causes and Lessons", published online in November 2004 in the Strategic Insights (III.11) examines the motivations of the Argentine junta for invading the Falkland Islands in 1982. Arguing from a theoretical approach, McClure claims that Argentine national pride and resentment ahelped lock the junta into a conflict with Britain that it might well have won. He errs in ascribing this to a "Third World" mentality, not only because "Third World" isn't a useful category at all in this sort of study but because the motives he ascribes come from a sense of relative decline. Compare Weimar Germany or Italy after the First World War.