ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to examine the British attitude to the use of force during the time of the Thatcher governments, on the basis of a number of case studies of British policy in involvements out-of-area. On 2 April 1982 Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands in a bloodless invasion, providing the reason for Britain's greatest and most sustained out-of-area military operation since the 1960s. The Prime Minister was enraged because of the affront to Britain and to her personally, an affront aggravated by the fact that Her Majesty was also the Queen of Grenada and was forced to accept an invasion as a fait accompli. There is an interesting contrast between the Falklands conflict and the intervention in Grenada. The Thatcher years coincided with a major effort by the United States administration to restore its strategic position in the world, which it felt had been significantly eroded during the 1970s..
