<i>Détente</i>as a Strategy: Greece and the Communist World, 1974–9

Kourkouvelas, Lykourgos

doi:10.1080/07075332.2013.820772

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Détente was key to solving the issue of the return of Greek exiles from Eastern Europe and tied in with continuing protest against NATO and anti-Americanism in Greek society. 143 Strikingly, it was the socialist Andreas Papandreou -who in 1968 had been quick to profess his sympathy with the Czechoslovak opposition -who turned Greece into a venue for East-West détente after his access to power in 1981 and cultivated the connections with state socialist regimes. 144 In Greece, the enemy was not on the other side of the Iron Curtain, but in the West, namely Turkey.…”

Section: The Failure Of An Anti-totalitarian Struggle In the 1970smentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Communists are no Beasts’: European Solidarity Campaigns on Behalf of Democracy and Human Rights in Greece and East–West Détente in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Christiaens

2017

Contemporary European History

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Ever since the collapse of the Greek military regime in 1974 European campaigns over human rights and democracy in Greece have been commonly understood within an anti-totalitarian narrative that has celebrated resistance against both communist dictatorship and right-wing authoritarianism as part of a common journey towards a democratic continent. This article analyses the little-studied history of European solidarity movements with Greece during the 1960s and early 1970s that stretched across both the West and East of the continent. In so doing, it suggests that these campaigns were a facet of the politics of détente and rapprochement that brought together Western and Eastern Europe. Communist peace movements played a central role in these human rights campaigns. This was far from a common anti-totalitarian movement; rather, campaigns for Greece were enmeshed within movements that worked on a wide range of issues – from support for Eastern European dissidents and anti-fascism to world peace and protest against the Vietnam War. Nor were they about ‘a return to Europe’: above all they thrived on common connections in East and West with the Third World.

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Section: The Failure Of An Anti-totalitarian Struggle In the 1970smentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Communists are no Beasts’: European Solidarity Campaigns on Behalf of Democracy and Human Rights in Greece and East–West Détente in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Christiaens

2017

Contemporary European History

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“…A 'Balkan détente' was initiated in the 1960s and expanded under the post-authoritarian Karamanlis government in Greece. 84 It brought Balkan states together on themes such as tourism, environment and trade through the 1970s and 1980s. 85 Relations between East and South also had an important extra-European dimension which is often missed in what are still very Eurocentric histories of Europeanisation.…”

Section: East-south Détente the 'Third World' And Alternative Europementioning

confidence: 99%

Entangled Transitions: Eastern and Southern European Convergence or Alternative Europes? 1960s–2000s

Christiaens¹,

Mark²,

Faraldo³

2017

Contemporary European History

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Ever since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the enthusiasm it inspired about the potential for European unity and democracy, it has become fashionable to see post-war European history in terms of convergence. Historians have researched the integration of the European continent into the global, in the context of the Cold War, decolonisation and economic globalisation. Internally, processes of convergence are seen to link the trajectories of nations on a continent where integration eventually trumped the divisions of nationalism, regionalism and the Iron Curtain. This story of an ‘ever deeper and wider union’ was also reflected in the ways in which the transformations of Southern and Eastern Europe were narrated. The idea of a so-called ‘return to Europe’ inspired histories that connected the fall of right-wing authoritarian regimes in the Southern European states of Portugal, Greece and Spain from the mid-1970s with the end of communism in Eastern Europe from 1989. This dominant account has presented Southern and Eastern European ‘peripheries’ moving towards the (Western) European core and its norms, values and models of liberal democracy. Even though some have raised objections to these teleological and Western-dominated narratives of transition they have remained strikingly potent in histories of post-war Europe. Only very recently have they received historiographical critique. Partly this is due to the enduring appeal of centre-periphery approaches that continue to influence intellectual debates about European identity and history. This is also because research on the transitions in Southern and Eastern Europe has for a long time remained rather insular. Historians have been slow to enter a research field that has been dominated by institutional and political approaches, and they have remained more focused on national histories. Where historians of either Eastern or Southern Europe have addressed the transnational or transregional aspects of transition, this has mainly focused on the appeal of the West or its Atlanticist dimensions.

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“…At the same time, "the architects of Greek diplomacy pursued détente in the Balkans to counter-balance perceived Turkish aggressiveness and hegemonism." 64 Limiting Turkey's aggressiveness was required in case Ankara wanted to be part of the Balkan détente; if, conversely, Turkey did not show any interest, then emphasis was to be placed on making the regional "coalition" succeed as a counter-point to Turkey's claims of regional hegemony. 65 It has been also argued that Karamanlis was in search of regional support on behalf of the Balkan Powers in the context of Greek policy concerning Cyprus, especially in terms of influencing American voters.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Relevance ofDétenteto American Foreign Policy: The Case of Greece, 1967–1979

Maragkou

2014

Diplomacy & Statecraft

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Détenteas a Strategy: Greece and the Communist World, 1974–9

Cited by 8 publications

References 4 publications

‘Communists are no Beasts’: European Solidarity Campaigns on Behalf of Democracy and Human Rights in Greece and East–West Détente in the 1960s and Early 1970s

‘Communists are no Beasts’: European Solidarity Campaigns on Behalf of Democracy and Human Rights in Greece and East–West Détente in the 1960s and Early 1970s

Entangled Transitions: Eastern and Southern European Convergence or Alternative Europes? 1960s–2000s

The Relevance ofDétenteto American Foreign Policy: The Case of Greece, 1967–1979

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