Greece as a NATO Member in the Longue Durée

Abstract

Greece entered NATO in order to guarantee its existence against the revisionism of the Balkan communist states during the Cold War. The rise of Greek-Turkish rivalry during the 1950s and 1960s and its climax, the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, caused Greece’s withdrawal from NATO structure from 1974 to 1980. After the end of the Cold War Greece attempted to form a multilateral approach in its foreign policy and secure its interests in both the Balkan area and the Eastern Mediterranean. The new unstable environment of the early 21st century and Greece’s economic crisis complicated Greece’s position in NATO. Still the macro-historic parameters of Greece’s identity as a sea power confirm its ties to the Atlantic world and predict a possible realignment of Greece in an increasingly unstable European framework that could well see the demise of the European Union.