History and Present Situation of the Oldest Territorial Conflict in the World: the British Usurpation of the Argentine Malvinas Islands Archipelago

The purpose of this study is clarifying the situation of the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands, which is a genuine injustice protected only by the prevalence of the economic, political and military might of a country that is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council over a country located “in the periphery of a Eurocentric world.” This situation constitutes a threat against international peace and security, since the 2004 relocation of the United Kingdom's South Atlantic naval command from Ascension Island to the Mount Pleasant base in the Malvinas archipelago and the European Parliament's project to “Europeanize” that base constitute steps towards the transformation of the South Atlantic into a new area of international conflict. The article shows that this is the oldest territorial conflict in the world, an unacceptable remnant of colonialism in the 21st century maintained by a country that is a permanent member of the UN Security Council and has participated, along with the United States of America, in many Peace Missions ordered by this organization in which they overstepped the boundaries of the UN mandate, resulting in suspicious neocolonial behavior on the part of the military forces of both countries This paper offers a historical review of the events during the last 179 years which have made it possible for the United Kingdom to confuse the international community in an attempt to give a veneer of legality to usurpation of the Argentine archipelagos in the South Atlantic.