'The 1971 Re-establishment of Diplomatic Relations between Greece and Albania: Cooperation and Strategic Partnership within Cold War Bipolarity?', Greece in the Balkans: Memory, Conflict and Exchange (original) (raw)

"Th[is] chapter takes us to the midst of the Cold War environment which separated Greece from its northern neighbours, while inducing antagonism and military competition from the outside South East Europe. During such difficult times, however, the region’s leaders tried, more often than not, to avoid mutual confrontation. Hence the selective attempts by Greece to reengage with its neighbours during the Cold War. Indeed, by the 1970s, ideological rifts mattered less than converging national interests, so much so that Greece reengaged with its neighbours while under a military junta. Alexandros Nafpliotis studies the colonels’ regime, which re-established diplomatic relations with Albania, one of Europe’s most hardline communist dictatorships, after a freeze lasting more than 30 years. Nafpliotis argues that economic cooperation and strategic calculations trumped the logic of ideological rivalries and extreme ideological enemies, such as Enver Hoxha in Tirana and the military the junta in Athens, chose to explore paths of cooperation."