Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Southeast European History

Bojana Meyn

 

Foreign and security policy in the Balkans: Tito, Greece and the Western powers in the 1950s

 

The focus of the research project “Foreign and security policy in the Balkans: Tito, Greece and the Western powers in the 1950s” lies on the comparative study of changes in the foreign relations of Yugoslavia and Greece and their dependence on the policy objectives and interests of the West.

The project will investigate to what extent the Western powers influenced Yugoslav-Greek cooperation during the 1950s and how these powers implemented their economic and military assistance in both states. At the same time, the analysis will also explore to what extent Greece and Yugoslavia were able to use Western interference for their respective objectives and interests. The present study is concerned particularly with the period from 1949 to 1962 and the main sources to be analyzed will be the documents from the Yugoslav and Greek archives.

This research has a twofold objective. First, it aims to contribute to understanding the foreign relations between Yugoslavia and Greece, the maintenance and development of regional security and the role of Western powers in the realization of this concept in the 1950s. Second, it seeks to expand our understanding of Western power politics and their practical implementation in the Balkans, in early days of the Cold War, during the first two decades after 1945.

This research is financed by the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation.

 

FES