Power Politics, Security Dilemma, αnd Crisis Behaviour: The Case οf Imia

Abstract

This article unravels the string of events surrounding the Imia Crisis while seeking to address the nature of the Greek-Turkish security dilemma with respect to crisis behavior. The analytical framework is defined along clear neo-realist lines, where insecurity and conflict is caused by the inescapable self-help nature of the system and the emergence, thus, of balance of power and/or power politics state behavior. The author argues that the structure of Greek-Turkish relations alone, defined as the distribution of capabilities and the anarchic nature of the system, cannot account for the security dilemma (and its intensity) which exists between the two states. Structural factors are extremely important, but equally important are the revisionist goals, described as non-security expansion, of one of the two actors – Turkey, as a major cause of instability and conflict. The predatory, power maximization Turkish behavior has resulted in power politics. This premise is supported empirically by a review of Turkey’s crisis conduct in the Imia incident of 1996.