Discovering Disappearance: The UK Foreign Policy Response to Dirty War 1976-1980.

This paper seeks to explore the way in which the UK has formulated its policy on enforced disappearance between 1976 and 1980. This period encompasses the Dirty Wars in Chile and Argentina, the prelude to the UK conflict with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and the formation of the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance, the first thematic mechanism of its kind. This was a period of contrast for UK foreign policy; in terms of responses to so called 'dirty war' at the UN and mission level. The primary material for this paper is derived from interviews with foreign policy thinkers and influencers during this period and recently released archival material. This paper seeks to shed light on the formulation process behind these policies. It will look at the way in which external actors influence foreign policy, question the role of organizational priorities in affecting the policy product and examine the dialectical relationship between human rights and national interest. In exploring this relationship, the paper seeks to bridge foreign policy analysis and human rights. More broadly the paper seeks to explicate the linkages between disappearance and other extra-judicial activities, shedding light on the under explored phenomena of Dirty War. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]