The Argentine navy as an autonomous actor in Argentine politics

• Main Author: Sahni, V
• Other Authors: Whitehead, L
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Argentina > Politics and government; Argentina > Armed forces > Political activity; Argentina; Argentine; Patagonia; Antarc*; Antarctica; Tierra del Fuego
• Online Access: https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:838105eb-3d93-4bf2-8ac8-317449281bab

Virtually the entire corpus of literature on military intervention in politics treats "military" as synonymous with "army". In contrast, this thesis focuses on the Argentine Navy, other political actors being studied only tangentially, to the extent that they interact with the naval institution. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is a study of the Argentine Navy as a political actor from 1810 to the present day. This part of the thesis seeks to analyse the extent of, and limits on, naval political autonomy. Periods in which the Navy played a leading rôle are therefore emphasised: the Revolucién Libertadora that overthrew Perón in September 1955, the Azul-Colorado factional struggles of September 1962 and April 1963, and the Proceso de Reorganisacién Nacional (1976-83) with the so-called "war against subversion" (or “dirty war") and the South Atlantic War of 1982. The second part analyses the Argentine Navy thematically as a military institution and social group. It deals with factors such as the influence of foreign navies and the social origins of the officer corps, which have been suggested in the past as reasons for political differences between the Argentine Army and Navy. Explanations are sought for important characteristic features of the Argentine Navy such as its strong institutional cohesion and its laissez-faire liberal economic ideology. The indoctrination and socialisation process within the Navy and its presumed anti-clerical and/or masonic orientation are also considered. Various aspects of inter-Force relations are studied: the annual struggle over budgetary allocations and the Navy-Air Force rivalry over military aviation. Finally, naval "jurisdictional hegemony" with regard to certain regions (Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and Antarctica) and issues (the atomic energy programme) is analysed. The major conclusion is that the political behaviour of the Argentine Navy differs from that of the Army due to endogenous factors (naval comradeship and discipline) rather than to exogenous ...