The Origins of Greece’s ‘Socialization Strategy’ vis-à-vis Turkey

Abstract

The article provides an account of the various domestic, regional and systemic reasons that have led to a reformulation of Greece’s foreign policy towards Turkey since the mid-1990’s and to the adoption of a ‘socialization strategy’ towards Turkey. The conditioning factors for the adopted new strategy, namely a ‘top-down’ and a ‘bottom-up’ Europeanization of Greece’s foreign policy are also discussed. Realist/neo-realist explanations of socialization and certain aspects of the theory of alliance formation (balancing-bandwagoning debate) are used as methodological tools for assessing the empirical and historical data available.