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Abstract
The UK-Argentinian dispute regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands has been central to public debate in this the 30th year since the Falklands War. Less well known, however, are the strategic challenges facing the UK in managing its Overseas Territories in the region, to which the Falklands are a ‘strategic gateway’. Klaus Dodds surveys the rationales underpinning current UK policy regarding the South Atlantic and Antarctic Overseas Territories – sovereignty, security and stewardship – and addresses the implications for regional geopolitics of the recent saga involving the proposed merger of the British Antarctic Survey and National Oceanography Centre.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the editor and referees of the RUSI Journal for their kind comments. This paper was initially developed in a presentation as part of the 2010 –11 ESRC Seminar Series entitled ‘Knowledges, Resources and Legal Regimes: The New Geopolitics of the Polar Regions’. The author also acknowledges the support of his collaborating colleague Richard Powell at the University of Oxford and his research colleague Alan Hemmings.
Notes
1. St Helena, and its 4,200 residents, receives budgetary aid from the Department for International Development (DfID), which amounts to approximately £30 million per annum. There is no indigenous population on Ascension Island, which, along with Tristan da Cunha, does not receive any budgetary aid. The UK possesses fourteen Overseas Territories (OT), the vast majority of which are located either in the Caribbean or the South Atlantic. This article is mindful of the wider OT context but does not address OT policies and strategies more generally. For a paper that is attentive to the wider policy and geographical context, see Peter Clegg and Peter Gold, ‘The UK Overseas Territories: A Decade of Progress and Prosperity?’, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (Vol. 49, No. 1, 2011), pp. 115–35.
2. Figure quoted in House of Commons, SN0621, ‘The Defence of the Falkland Islands – Commons Library Standard Note’, 8 February 2012, p. 6. The figure of £75 million per year reflects service personnel costs; additional costings are to be accounted for such as equipmentrelated costs and maintaining the airport and air-bridge with Ascension Island.
3. Natural Environment Research Council, ‘Consultation on Proposal to Merge BAS and NOC’, 2012, <http://www.nerc.ac.uk/about/consult/bas-noc.asp>, accessed 8 November 2012. The phrase ‘proposed merger’ is a generous one; the consultation document made it clear that merger was the preferred option.
4. David Willetts, the universities and science minister, was one such beneficiary of this air-link between the Falklands and the Antarctic Peninsula when he visited Rothera in February 2012. See Natural Environment Research Council, ‘Science Minister Returns from Fact-Finding Mission to Antarctica’, 5 March 2012, <http://www.nerc.ac.uk/press/briefings/2012/03-willetts.asp>, accessed 8 November 2012.
5. Klaus Dodds, Pink Ice: Britain and the South Atlantic Empire (London: I. B. Tauris, 2002).
6. Richard C Powell, ‘Science, Sovereignty and Nation: Canada and the Legacy of the International Geophysical Year 1957–58’, Journal of Historical Geography (Vol. 34, No. 4, 2008), pp. 618–38.
7. For example, House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, HC 699, ‘Proposed Merger of British Antarctic Survey and National Oceanography Centre’, Sixth Report of Session 2012–13, 31 October 2012.
8. BBC News, ‘British Antarctic Survey Merger Plan Ruled Out’, 2 November 2012.
9. House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, ‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Managing Risk in the Overseas Territories’, Seventeenth Report of Session 2007–08, 31 March 2008, p. 14.
10. Foreign Office, The Overseas Territories: Security, Success and Sustainability, Cm 8374 (London: The Stationery Office, June 2012). This White Paper in effect replaces the Labour government's 1999 White Paper ‘Partnership for Progress and Prosperity: Britain and the Overseas Territories’, Cm 4264, March 1999, <http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/charters/WhitePaper99full.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
11. Foreign Office, The Overseas Territories: Security, Success and Sustainability, Cm 8374 (London: The Stationery Office, June 2012). This White Paper in effect replaces the Labour government's 1999 White Paper ‘Partnership for Progress and Prosperity: Britain and the Overseas Territories’, Cm 4264, March 1999, <http://www.ukotcf.org/pdf/charters/WhitePaper99full.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
12. Foreign Office, The Overseas Territories, p. 6.
13. For a detailed analysis of that incident and Anglo-Argentinian-Falkland Islands relations, see Klaus Dodds and Lara Manovil, ‘Back to the Future? Implementing the Anglo-Argentine 14th July 1999 Joint Statement’, Journal of Latin American Studies (Vol. 33, November 2001), pp. 777–806.
14. This was particularly striking in the academic literature following the 1982 South Atlantic conflict. See Lowell S Gustafson, The Sovereignty Dispute over the Falkland (Malvinas) Islands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 141.
15. Vivian Fuchs, Of Ice and Men: The Story of the British Antarctic Survey (Oswestry: Anthony Nelson, 1982).
16. Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, Volume II: War and Diplomacy (London: Routledge, 2005), p. 682.
17. However, concerns have been expressed in the past about the reliability of the air-bridge and how it serves both the UK armed forces but also civilians travelling to and from the Falkland Islands. See House of Commons Public Affairs Committee, ‘Foreign and Commonwealth Office’, p. 49.
18. UK service personnel were stationed on South Georgia between 1982 and 2001.
19. George Freeman, ‘Oral Answers to Questions’, Hansard, HC Debates, 20 February 2012, Col. 597.
20. Klaus Dodds, ‘Stormy Waters: Britain, the Falkland Islands and UK-Argentine Relations’, International Affairs (Vol. 88, No. 4, 2012), pp. 683–700.
21. HM Government, Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), Cm 7948 (London: The Stationery Office, 2010).
22. Ministry of Defence, ‘Overseas Territories: The Ministry of Defence's Contribution’, 2012, p. 4; <http://www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1AD4AFE6-4946-4BAC-A3A6-7AFBF9AA25BF/0/overseas_territories.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
23. The presence of the Typhoon fighter jets alongside naval assets is judged to be sufficient in terms of the current defence of the Falkland Islands, and with the presence of the air-bridge there is capacity to reinforce such assets if necessary.
24. United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, ‘Submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf Pursuant to Article 76, Paragraph 8 of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea 1982 in Respect of the Falklands Islands, and of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’, 11 May 2009, <http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/gbr45_09/gbr2009fgs_executive%20summary.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
25. Submission from Jorge Argüello, Argentinian ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, N.U. No. 290/09/600, 20 August 2009, <http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/gbr45_09/arg_re_gbr_clcs_2009e.ppd>, accessed 8 November 2012.
26. Submission from Jorge Argüello, Argentinian ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, N.U. No. 290/09/600, 20 August 2009, <http://www.un.org/Depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/gbr45_09/arg_re_gbr_clcs_2009e.ppd>, accessed 8 November 2012.
27. See Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, ‘Annex V: Summary of Recommendations of the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in Regard to the Submission Made by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Respect of Ascension Island on 9 May 2008’, 15 April 2010, <http://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/gbr08/gbr_asc_isl_rec_summ.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
28. There are other areas of stewardship that matter in relation to the South Atlantic Overseas Territories, such as the role of organisations like the South Georgia Heritage Trust, <http://www.sght.org>, accessed 8 November 2012.
29. Under the terms of its 2008 constitution, the government of the Falkland Islands is able to initiate its own discussions or negotiations on fisheries independently of the UK government.
30. Letter from Colin Roberts, Foreign Office, Overseas Territories Directorate to the Argentinian Ambassador Alicia Castro, 7 June 2012, <http://en.mercopress.com/data/docs/fco-letter-flight-sand-fisheries.pdf>, accessed 8 November 2012.
31. The UK government introduced a marine protected area for the South Orkneys and British Indian Ocean Territory. See the critical analysis by Peter H Sand, ‘Marine Protected Areas off UK Overseas Territories: Comparing the South Orkneys Shelf and the Chagos Archipelago’, Geographical Journal (Vol. 178, No. 3, September 2012), pp. 201–07.
32. Foreign Office, ‘South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Announce Marine Protected Area to Safeguard Biodiversity’, press release, 27 February 2012.
33. Klaus Dodds and A D Hemmings, ‘Recent Developments in Relations between the UK and Argentina in the South Atlantic/Antarctic region’, Polar Record (forthcoming).
34. British Antarctic Survey, ‘King Edward Point Research Station’, <http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/living_and_working/research_stations/king_edward_point/>, accessed 8 November 2012. There is another, smaller BAS base in South Georgia on Bird Island. King Edward Point is actually funded by the Foreign Office in direct recognition that the base is an essential element in the maintenance of British sovereignty over the island.
35. The website of the government of South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands explicitly makes this link between sovereignty and stewardship: <http://www.sgisland.gs/index.php/(h)Welcome_to_South_Georgia>, accessed 8 November 2012.
36. It should be acknowledged that Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island have not been addressed in this article. Around 270 people live on Tristan and the main income-generating activities are lobster farming and the sale of postage stamps. Gough is a world heritage site and the South African weather service maintains a small community on the island.