ary - note:
In October 2004, the European Union heads of government signed a
"constitutional treaty" that offers possibilities - with some limits
- for increased defense and security cooperation. If ratified, in a
process that may take some two years, this treaty will in effect
make operational the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP)
approved in the 2000 Nice Treaty. Despite limits of cooperation for
some EU members, development of a European military planning unit is
likely to continue. So is creation of a rapid-reaction military
force and a humanitarian aid system, which the planning unit will
support. France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and
Italy continue to press for wider coordination. The five-nation
Eurocorps - created in 1992 by France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and
Luxembourg - has already deployed troops and police on peacekeeping
missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo and assumed command of the International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan in August 2004. Eurocorps
directly commands the 5,000-man Franco-German Brigade and the
Multinational Command Support Brigade and will command EUFOR, which
will take over from SFOR in Bosnia in December 2004. Other troop
contributions are under national command - committments to provide
67,100 troops were made at the Helsinki EU session in 2000. Some
56,000 EU troops were actually deployed in 2003. In August 2004, the
new European Defense Agency, tasked with promoting cooperative
European defense capabilities, began operations. As of November
2004, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France had proposed creation
of three 1,500-man rapid-reaction "battle groups."

This page was last updated on 10 February, 2005

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@Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

Introduction Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)

Background:
Although first sighted by an English navigator in 1592, the first
landing (English) did not occur until almost a century later in
1690, and the first settlement (French) was not established until
1764. The colony was turned over to Spain two years later and the
islands have since been the subject of a territorial dispute, first
between Britain and Spain, then between Britain and Argentina. The
UK asserted its claim to the islands by esta