‘Out with the bases of death’ : civil society and peace mobilisation in Greece during the 1980s

The peace mobilisation against the Euromissiles in the early 1980s constituted one of the biggest mass movements in contemporary European history. The article aims to examine the completely neglected, albeit impressive peace movement in Greece of the 1980s. What mobilised these activists? How did they frame the notion of peace? What were the political conditions under which the discourse of peace became powerful? What was the role of the state and political parties? How did they protest? The article will use national and local press, transnational and Greek peace campaign material, semistructured interviews and polls to provide rich and unique evidence on the way protesters mobilised in recently democratised Greece. Recent accounts of peace mobilisation have emphasized its pan-European character. While acknowledging the merit of transnational approaches, the archival based project, informed by new social movements theory, aims to contextualise cycles of protest mobilisation and highlight the role of national identity that transcended Cold War narratives

Troublemaker or Peacemaker? Andreas Papandreou, the Euromissile Crisis and the policy of peace, 1981-1986

The article sheds light on a neglected piece of the Euromissile Crisis puzzle, namely Greece’s policy of peace. The article examines the interaction of Andreas Papandreou’s socialist government’s foreign policy, developments in the country’s political culture and national frames of reference, and the unfolding drama of the nuclear crisis of the 1980s. While subscribing to an international cause, papandreou framed the policy of peace in ardent nationalist terms that involved renegotiation of the american bases on greek soil, relations with nato, balkan regional schemes for nuclear-weapons-free zones, and international initiatives with the third world

'At last, our voice is heard in the world’ : Greece and the Six Nation Initiative during the Euromissile Crisis

The emergence of the Second Cold War revived the nuclear arms race and triggered millions of demonstrators to take to the streets to protest against the looming nuclear threat. Most of the historiography has focused on these anti-nuclear rallies as well as the Cold War summits between Reagan and Gorbachev to deal with the Euromissiles escalation. This chapter will shed light on a completely neglected scheme called the ‘Six Nation Initiative’ launched by Greece along with India, Argentina, Mexico, Tanzania and Sweden, in May 1984 to halt what they called ‘a rush towards global suicide’ and to facilitate an agreement on nuclear arms control. It will show how these six peripheral countries, and Greece in particular, had an impact on the discourse, framing and at times decisions on peace and disarmament, illustrating the margins for manoeuvre of small states and their potential influence on Cold War dynamics

The only game in town? EEC, Southern Europe and the Greek crisis of the 1970s

On 28 May 1979, Greece—against all odds and five years ahead of Spain and Portugal—signed the Treaty of Accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in Athens. It was the culmination of an effort that had commenced in the late 1950s when Greece had become the first country to be granted association status on 9 July 1961. In 1975, the then Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis who oversaw Greece’s transition to democracy, applied for EEC membership as a long-lasting measure to protect the country’s nascent democratic institutions, secure its social cohesion and economic modernization, and ultimately guarantee enduring integration in the West. Greece had experienced a dictatorship since 1967, a period that abruptly ended in 1974 with a Greek-sponsored coup d’état against the President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios and the subsequent Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This was neither the first nor the last time since the inception of the Greek state that the political and intellectual elites turned to Europe. Greece had a tradition of participation in numerous alliances throughout its modern history because of its small size, economic backwardness and unstable geopolitical neighborhood. Such alliances had enabled Greece to strengthen its national security and advance its economic development. Often, however, such a reliance on external allies subjected Greece’s domestic politics and policies to foreign influence and in lack of Greek ownership allowed several political elites and their followers to view these alliances, including EEC membership, either as a panacea that would cure all the country’s problems or as a plague to be blamed for the country’s ills

Negotiating the American presence in Greece: bases, security and national sovereignty

American military bases and the political and social reactions they have solicited have had a major impact on the Greek political life. This article offers a synthetic analysis of the base negotiations in the period of democratization and rising anti-Americanism that integrates diplomatic with social history to tell for the first time how both Washington and Athens framed, understood and negotiated the status of the bases on the Greek soil and what was the role of the Turkish factor. Newly available evidence shed light on the motives of both players and unveils a dynamic and complex interchange between international and domestic pressures, the Turkish threat, the role of political parties, congress, and civil society

Enlargement and the EC’s evolving democratic identity, 1962-1978’

Building on multiple archival sources, the chapter traces how the Community institutions legitimized the expansion and continuation of the process of European integration through the discursive construction of democracy. It will focus on the entangled exchanges and debates elicited by the attempts of Southern European countries to accede to the EEC in the 1960-70s: the rebuttal of Spain’s initial overtures in 1962, the challenge of Greece – the Community’s first Associate member – being taken over by a military dictatorship in 1967, and finally the democratizing of Greece, Spain and Portugal after the fall of their respective dictatorships in the 1970s

Enlargement and the EC’s evolving democratic identity, 1962-1978’

Building on multiple archival sources, the chapter traces how the Community institutions legitimized the expansion and continuation of the process of European integration through the discursive construction of democracy. It will focus on the entangled exchanges and debates elicited by the attempts of Southern European countries to accede to the EEC in the 1960-70s: the rebuttal of Spain’s initial overtures in 1962, the challenge of Greece – the Community’s first Associate member – being taken over by a military dictatorship in 1967, and finally the democratizing of Greece, Spain and Portugal after the fall of their respective dictatorships in the 1970s