Security and the European Option

Postwar Greek foreign policy has attracted little attention, as scholars have tended to focus on the troubled 1940s, when the country became involved in the second world war, suffered a triple occupation and then went through a vicious civil conflict, which was one of the first incidents and a major chapter of the cold war.1 Unlike the 1940s, the period from the accession of Greece and Turkey to NATO until the Cuban missile crisis saw Greece able to embark upon reconstruction: the country was run by strong conservative governments, under Field-Marshal Alexandros Papagos (1952-5) and Constantinos Karamanlis (1955-63); its economy experienced a spectacular take-off; and except for the 1955-9 Cyprus crisis, Greece did not hit the international headlines. Compared to the previous decade, the south of the Balkans seemed quiet. Yet, several aspects of Greek foreign and defence policy in the 1950s are worth studying. This paper aims to analyse the system of alliances through which Athens hoped to achieve security in the early cold war period. It will be argued that Greece's military position was extremely difficult, and that apart from participation in NATO, Athens also tried to forge a series of bilateral relationships, with the aim of either strengthening the country's defences or denying other neighbouring powers to the Soviets. To use P. Kennedy's expression, the 'realities behind diplomacy' that Greece had to face, turned its search for security into a complicated political, economic, or even military exercise. The paper will also attempt to trace the role that Greek policy-makers attributed to the EEC with regard to security. As early as the 1950s, Greece stepped forward as one of the most ardent exponents of political as well as economic European co-operation, and became the first country to be associated with the Community in July 1961

Diplomacy · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Foreign policy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Balkan and Eastern European Studies · History · Law

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