Geopolitical Situation

Juan Peron

Internal Situation:
From 40's to Nestor Kirchner:

Despite a prosperous start to the 20th Century, political and economic turmoil resulted in a military coup in 1943 led, among others, by Juan Domingo Perón. Elected President in 1946, Perón undertook radical industrial and labour reforms. Despite winning re-election in 1953, he was exiled by the military in 1955. This was followed by a period of political instability and diminished economic growth, paving the way for Perón's return to the presidency in 1973. Perón died in 1974 and was succeeded by his third wife, Maria Estela “Isabel” Martínez de Perón, but she was ousted in another military coup in 1976. The ensuing period of repression under the military junta, known as the 'Dirty War', resulted in over 9,000 recorded political murders and disappearances.[1]
Argentina returned to civilian government in 1983. Since that time, the country's democratic institutions have been consolidated. This has not, however, been matched by similarly enduring financial and economic stability. In 2001, a profound economic crisis provoked serious civil unrest and resulted in the resignation of then President De la Rúa in December. After a period of transition under a caretaker administration, presidential elections were held in 2003 in which Néstor Kirchner came to power. With high public approval ratings, Kirchner's government focused on restructuring Argentina's foreign debt and promoting economic growth.[1]

The highs and lows of Cristina Kirchner:

Kirchner was succeeded in 2007 by his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (née Fernández), a seasoned politician in her own right. Fernández continued and stepped up her husband’s unorthodox economic programme, with mixed results. In 2011, on the back of record-high approval ratings, Fernández was re-elected by a landslide for a second four-year term. In part, the outcome reflected a groundswell of public sympathy for Fernández after Néstor Kirchner’s untimely death of a heart attack in 2010.[2]
In Fernández’s second term, her administration ran into increasing economic difficulties, with a less favorable external context and worsening energy bottlenecks and inflationary pressures at home. The government fared poorly in mid-term legislative elections held in 2013, losing in all the major districts and failing to gain the majority needed to amend the constitution and which would have allowed Fernández to seek a second re-election.
Kirchner's politics were mainly based on a popularism inherited from the "Peronismo". She threatened many foreign investors and company on the sake of the national interest when she couldn't handle the economic issues the country was going through. She also tried to reform the media in her favor closing many private channels, this caused a general outburst. The most famous case of state manipulation was the The National Statistics and Census Institute (INDEC) case, which has been suspected of manipulating inflation statistics under the Kirchner government. Debtors and creditors of Argentina’s external debt have an interest in INDEC’s statistics as it determines how much interest the government will pay on its debt. In March 2012, private analyses of inflation put the figure at 20.78%, compared to 9% published by INDEC.[2]
The 2015 presidential election was won, by a small but clear margin, by opposition candidate and former Buenos Aires city mayor Mauricio Macri of the centre-right Cambiemos (“Let’s Change”) coalition. Macri, whose government faces significant economic and political challenges, moved quickly to assert his authority, making a raft of major policy announcements very early on.

President Macri's policy is based on three objectives:

The first and key driver of his administration is to eliminate poverty. This is a very significant objective, because it is in the context of the post-2030 agenda that the world has signed to that the president has defined the elimination of poverty as a key central element of his agenda.[3]
The second one is the fight against narcotrafficking. And that element has to do not only with the internal challenges related to the drug trafficking, the problems of corruption, the problems of institutional corruption, the problems of managing the security forces and the larger institutions of the government. In fact it also has to do with Argentina's position in the region, its integration to the countries around Argentina and beyond, starting from Mexico to the interconnection between narcotrafficking and the financing of extreme groups in West Africa.
The third objective is the objective of rebuilding democratic institutions, being able to bring together the Argentinians for once behind objectives that allow all of the citizens to work together through a common agenda to reinforce and in some cases start the serious work on democratic institution-building, separating powers, ensuring that the executive, the legislative, and the judicial have their own space, and each one of them through the normal means of balance in democracy do their part of the work in a constructive manner.

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Foreign policy and Bilateral Relations

Argentina is a member of the G20 and was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2013-14. Argentina is currently a member of the UN Economic and Social Council (2015-2017) and the UN Human Rights Council (2013-2016).
Argentina is a key member in the regional trade bloc Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela). It is also a member of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the Organisation of American States (OAS), that seek to advance a variety of regional political and economic interests.[4]
Argentina also shares interests in international peacekeeping, the prevention of WMD proliferation, disarmament, environmental issues, agricultural trade liberalisation and economic cooperation. Argentina and Australia also work together on issues relating to the Antarctic, especially in efforts to address illegal fishing through the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

President Macri's guidelines:

Increase dramatically the presence of Argentina in the world notably in forums, to show what Argentina is today, but also to try and capture the interest and the imagination of the ones that can invest in Argentina to create jobs that are sustainable jobs for a future that has more opportunity for all. And this again has to do with the elimination of poverty.[3]
The second objective, is related to narcotraffick, again, the foreign ministry will be at the center of the cooperation to eliminate drug traffic in south America.
Third objective, the one of institution-building, is part of the responsibility of all.
Re-invigorate bilateral relations with the US and Europe.
Revise the foundations of Mercosur, evaluating (together with Brazil) alternatives that imply more free trade
Go back to a single exchange rate, allow for a revival of commodity exports and attract foreign direct investment. However, the realization of these objectives will depend on the evolution of domestic (the fate of Kirchnerism) and regional (the fate of the PT in Brazil) developments.[5]

Territorial Claims:

After nearly twenty years of intermittent negotiations with the United Kingdom, the military dictatorship in Argentina invaded and occupied the British-controlled Falkland Islands and adjoining archipelagos on 2 April 1982, starting the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas). The war itself lasted just 74 days but cost the lives of nearly a thousand Argentine and British troops as well as three Falkland Islanders and resulted in the islands coming back under British administration on 14 June 1982, dealing the dictatorship a humiliating blow and, inadvertently, opening Argentina's door to democracy.
Argentina claims part of Antarctica as Argentine Antarctica, an area delimited by the 25° West and 74° West meridians and the60° South parallel. This claim overlaps the British and Chilean claims, though all territorial claims in Antarctica are currently suspended (although not abandoned) under the Antarctic Treaty System. Argentina also claims the British overseas territories of the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. In addition a 50 kilometres (31 mi) long border with Chile in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field is awaiting demarcation as required under a 1998 treaty.

[1] Australian's Government: Ministry of Foreign affairs
[2] http://www.argentinaindependent.com/life-style/travel-life-style/politics/
[3] Council of foreign Relations: Argentinian Foreign Policy Under Mauricio Macri with Susana Mabel MalcorraMinister of Foreign Relations and Worship, Argentine Republic
[4] Argentina's Minister of Foreign Relations
[5] https://www.academia.edu/21834743/La_Pol%C3%ADtica_Exterior_Argentina_despues_de_los_Kirchner