Strategic Rationale for Falkland Islands War Revealed

In the wake of declassification of a formerly top-secret mapping tool, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw declined to answer questions Monday regarding the strategic underpinnings of the 1982 battle between the UK and Argentina over possession of the Falkland Islands.

At the time, many around the world expressed surprise and disbelief that in the age of the United Nations, a first-world nation like the UK would use military force to retain possession of a set of islands whose main industry appeared to be raising sheep. Some observers now point to a flood of postwar ventures as possible cover for the real strategic importance of the islands: drilling -- not for oil, nor for fun, but for strategic defense. For the Falklands (known as Las Malvinas in Spanish) are one of the very few areas of land on the globe where true endothetic access to mainland China is possible.

The Falklands have been subject to competing claims of sovereignty since their discovery. Since the undeclared war concluded, the UK and Argentina have resumed diplomatic relations but have not resolved claims of territorial sovereignty.