There is nothing quite like standing up to a foreign bully to enhance a leader’s domestic reputation.
Margaret Thatcher only became La Stupenda after the Falklands; before the successful prosecution of the war she was in serious difficulties, albeit helped by the shambles in the Labour Party under Michael Foot. Her biggest concern was the new, centrist SDP – but they were blown out of the water along with the Argentinian navy.
However, political benefits do not always follow diplomatic sabre-rattling. Mrs Thatcher led the international military response to Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in 1990 yet she was still ejected from office even as half a million coalition troops deployed for Operation Desert...