War Stories: British Elite Narratives of the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War

Abstract

I focus on British parliamentary discussions during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War campaign. By drawing on the recent literature of critical geopolitics and dissident international relations theory, I explore how the British government discursively justified the war campaign. Focusing on the war stories of the Thatcher government is a useful way of examining how certain organising scripts were used to demarcate sovereign identities and spaces. Finally, I highlight how the war stories were controlled and naturalised as the war campaign unfolded.