Fortress Falklands: Life Under Siege in Britain's Last Outpost

by Graham Bound (Author)

• Used

  Illustrated
  2012

  $3.50

  Since the war of 1982, the 3,000 people who live in the remote Falkland Islands have replaced traditional colonial rule with their own autonomous government, and become wealthy from the sale of fishing licences. Now oil has been discovered, and it promises almost unimaginable wealth. Money has already transformed this tiny society - not always for the better. But home-grown challenges are as nothing compared to the threat from their neighbour, Argentina.The oil discoveries have fuelled Argentina's ambitions to take the Islands that they believe were stolen from them almost 180 years ago. Buenos Aires is making the 'Malvinas' a regional issue involving other South American countries, and has established an economic blockade of the Islands, virtually cutting them off from the continent. It is a policy they say they will continue until London agrees to discuss a transition to Argentine rule. In response, the Prime Minister has stated that Britain will support the Islanders' right to remain British.The author was born in the Falklands, and returned there to see for himself the profound ways in which his homeland has changed. He considers what islanders have gained and lost, the challenges they face and why they may soon be at the centre of another South Atlantic crisis.