Britain and Latin America: 'Hope in a Time of Change?'

In the first
section we propose briefly to look at the history of British-Latin American
relations since the 1930s to emphasise what is perhaps common knowledge:
the steady decline in the relationship, which reached its lowest point during
the war in the South Atlantic in 1982. Although this story has already been
told elsewhere, we summarise it here both to provide a backdrop and to
illustrate the contrasts with the later period. We will then turn to an
examination of the recent signs of revival. Using parliamentary records,
some official unpublished documents, newspaper publications, and other
secondary material, we will look at the evidence that points to a relative renewal of Anglo-Latin American relationship in the past decade. The last
section of the paper will consider the limitations of this revival before
speculating about the prospects for the long-term strengthening of British ties
with Latin America.