Then Is Now, but the Colours are New: Greece, Cyprus and the Evolving Power Game between the West, Russia and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper seeks to survey, analyse and evaluate the rôle of Greece and Cyprus vis-à-vis the security and geo-economic dimension of the Eastern Mediterranean through the lens of integration and regional strategic interests in the region. Despite the enlargement of NATO and the European Union, which have striven to integrate new countries into the Western community, the regional balance of interests has proven to be more unstable than predicted by the proponents of a Westernized and peaceful Eastern Mediterranean. Influenced by the strengthening rôle of Russia and Turkey, as well as by internal structural problems in the social, political and economic spheres, the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Cyprus find themselves in a maelstrom of different and often conflicting regional interests, over which they have only minimal control. Developments are likely to have an impact on not only European integration, but on regional stability as a whole, since it can be argued that the old power structures of NATO and the EU are now having to contend with new regional factors. The article concludes with the observation that the situation in the region is confusing and volatile in diplomatic terms.