The summer of 2020 saw a renewal of tensions between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean. How much of this was new? How did it fit in with broader developments in the Eastern Mediterranean? This panel discussed what was driving the crisis forward and what was at stake for Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. It evaluated the importance of the discovery of hydrocarbons to regional developments and assessed the likelihood of escalation. What would be the possible outcomes and would they rely on balance between legal and political solutions? The panel assessed the role of various international actors in attempting to deescalate regional tensions.

Ioannis N. Grigoriadis (@ingrigoriadis) is Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair of European Studies at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Bilkent University. He is also Senior Fellow and Head of the Program on Turkey at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP). In the academic year 2018-2019, he was Visiting Professor at the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program, Buffett Institute for Global Studies, Northwestern University. In the academic year 2016-2017, he was IPC-Stiftung Mercator Senior Research Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik-SWP) in Berlin and Stanley J. Seeger Research Fellow at Princeton University. His research interests include comparative, European and Turkish politics and history. 

Kostas Ifantis (@KostasKifantis) is a Professor of International Relations, Panteion University, Athens. He has held fellowships and visiting research and teaching posts at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Harvard (Fulbright Scholar), LSE, the University of Seoul, and Kadir Has University, Istanbul. His papers have appeared in edited books and in international peer reviewed periodicals. Among other, he has co-edited, authored and co-authored NATO and the New Security Paradigm, (Frank Cass 2002); Turkish-Greek Relations (Routledge, 2004); Multilateralism and Security Institutions in an Era of Globalization, (Routledge, 2009); Is Europe Afraid of Europe? (Wilfrid Martens Center, 2014); The Syrian Imbroglio: Regional and International Strategies (Robert Schuman Centre/EUI, 2017).

James Ker-Lindsay (@JamesKerLindsay) is Visiting Professor at LSEE. He has worked extensively on Cyprus and Greek-Turkish Relations and is the author of, amongst others, The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press) and Crisis and Conciliation: A Year of Rapprochement between Greece and Turkey (I.B.Tauris). From 1998-2000 he was Co-ordinator of the Greek-Turkish Forum, a high-level peace support initiative. He has also served as an advisor to a number of governments and international organisations, including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Council of Europe and the United Nations and is a regular commentator on Eastern Mediterranean affairs. 

Fiona Mullen (@FionaMullenCY) has been providing independent economic analysis to an international audience for over 20 years. She founded Sapienta Economics Ltd in 2006 and is the author of the monthly Sapienta Country Analysis Cyprus. Clients include more than a dozen embassies, including EU and P5; oil and gas majors; big four accounting firms; banks; and other local and international investors. Mullen is the economy adviser to the United Nations good offices mission (2008-Feb 2016 & Dec 2017 to date, including as international staff member March 2009-April 2010). She has written extensively on the economics of a Cyprus settlement, including several publications co-authored with Greek and Turkish Cypriots for the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). She was author of the Cyprus reports for the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) from 2002 to 2015. Before living in Cyprus Mullen was Senior Europe Analyst at the EIU and Director of the EIU’s flagship Country Reports. 

Spyros Economides is Associate Professor in International Relations and European Politics at the London School of Economics and Deputy Director of the Hellenic Observatory. He was a Research Associate of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College and at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He has also served as Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College, USA, and in the Faculties of Political Science at the Universities of Zagreb, Croatia and Belgrade, Serbia. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the EU Centre in Singapore. His current research concentrates the external relations and security policies of the EU; Europeanisation and foreign policy, and the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans. Dr Economides is also a regular commentator in national and international media on issues relating to Greece and those of the Western Balkans. His latest publication is Economides and Sperling (eds.) EU Security Strategies: Extending the EU System of Security Governance (2018).

The twitter Hashtag for this event is: #LSEGreece

Slides

A copy of Dr Ioannis N. Grigoriadis' slide presentation is available for download here.
A copy of Ms Fiona Mullen's slide presentation is available for download here.

Podcast

Listen to the podcast here.

Video

Watch the video here.

The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.