Realism and Human Rights in US Policy toward Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus

The theme of this book is the interplay between Realism and Human Rights in the formulation of US policy towards Greece and Turkey with respect to the Cyprus and the Aegean disputes and the domestic politics of the two countries from the Truman to the Carter administration.

The policies of successive administrations, and those of Johnson and Nixon in the 1960s and 1970s, were formulated upon the requirements of containment as this was conceived in 1946-47 by the Truman administration. Realpolitik dominated the agenda and issues related to values and norms were secondary although not unimportant. Whenever a choice had to be made between realpolitik and human rights the former was the main consideration of American policy-makers. Although committed to the recalibration of US foreign policy toward human rights, the Carter administration did not depart from these premises in the formulation of its policy in the Eastern Mediterranean.