| This thesis offers the first global history of the Cold War in the eastern Mediterranean. It examines the international linkages that bound Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus with superpowers, non-aligned states, and transnational movements during the second half of the twentieth century, and it considers the effects of such linkages upon the eastern Mediterranean's domestic arenas. Throughout, it demonstrates that two forces -- synthesis of outside influence alongside consolidation of internal identities -- dictated the region's experiences during the Cold War. And though the international environment furnished the conditions within which the region's societies pursued the project of nation-building, indigenous forces and factors remained the fundamental drivers of political and social change. Ultimately, the nations of the eastern Mediterranean emerged from the Cold War period changed by decades living under the auspices of superpower competition. But as events in the early twenty-first century would demonstrate, the Cold War served as a catalyst, rather than a cause, for developments long underway in one of the world's most vibrant -- and, at times, volatile -- hubs of globalization. |
