Around 250 nautical miles off the Argentinian coast there are a group of islands that were occupied and colonised by Britain in the 19th century. Britain calls them the Falkland Islands and want to hold on to them. The Argentinians call them Las Malvinas and want them back. As part of an escalating dispute Argentina are now threatening to take the issue to the United Nations. In itself this is not news because Argentina bring the issue up at the UN's General Assembly every year. However the possibility of bringing it up as a separate issue is a response to British provocation over the issue. This includes celebrating the 30th anniversary of the 1982 war which breaks with the tradition of only marking the 10th, 25th and 50th anniversaries and sending the heir to the British throne Prince William to the islands on military duty and deploying Britain's most advanced warship to the islands.
The reason for this provocation is because Britain knows that if Argentina were to invade the islands Britain lacks the military strength to re-take them and would require international assistance. There are also complex legal questions over whether the current British regime is able to exert sovereignty over the British Isles let alone the Falkland Islands. So Britain wants to find out where it stands internationally. Personally I think it would be better for the Argentinians to carry out bilaterals with key figures and then just invade in 2015/17.
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Perhaps if the Argentine government would pay up for the demining costs and offer to help the islanders, they might slowly win them over. However that is far to subtle for them. If fact had the Argentinians done nothing in 1982, the Islands would likely have been given to them by the UK who wanted to be rid of them.
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