Foreign and Defence Policy

Abstract

The Falklands campaign, from April to June 1982, illustrates how complex the interaction between foreign and defence policy and the domestic base of politics can be. The security of the United Kingdom itself was not threatened, but the ability of the United Kingdom to defend its interests in a crisis, and to maintain objectives and principles that are important to the country, was put under a scrutiny that was tense and urgent, because the Argentinian invasion of the Islands was unexpected.