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Our seabed? Argentina, the Falklands and the wider South Atlantic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Klaus Dodds*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Surrey TW20 0EX (K.Dodds@rhul.ac.uk)

Abstract

This note addresses the recent announcement regarding Argentina's submission to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. While the commission considered much of Argentina's submitted materials regarding the outer continental shelf (and sovereign rights that accrue to the seabed), it deliberately excluded areas of controversy including the Falkland Islands and Antarctica. What should be of interest to Polar Record readers is how consistently international media, including British journalists, misunderstand international maritime law and ‘stoke’ the fires of Argentine and British nationalisms. The Argentine government, however, was not an innocent party and its own press releases were ambiguous on the matter concerned, even if the commission had recognised the merit of much of their scientific-technical submission.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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