GEOPOLITICS IN THE FOREIGN-OFFICE - BRITISH REPRESENTATIONS OF ARGENTINA 1945-1961

Existing studies of Anglo-Argentine relations tend to neglect the period 1945-61. The paper presents a critical geopolitical analysis of British representations of Argentina within foreign policy discourse. Geopolitical and geoeconomic representations, including those based on science, mapping and surveying, are understood as crucial to the legitimation of foreign policies. Government records are used to explore how a long-standing trading relationship was being replaced by relations based increasingly on conflict and geopolitical competition in the Antarctic and the South Atlantic.