The international dimension of Southern European
Dictatorships: Spain, Portugal and Greece in the Cold War system,
1968-1975
Workshop
19 June 2012
LSE IDEAS, Cold War Studies Programme
SUMMARY
Less than half a
century ago, three Southern European countries still lived under right-wing
dictatorial rule. Spain, Portugal and Greece were the last European countries
outside the Soviet orbit to emerge from the shadows of dictatorships and join
the democratic nexus of Western Europe. Although their dictatorial regimes
varied considerably in terms of implementation, duration, nature and practice,
they did nonetheless share a number of common characteristics. These included
sharp social divisions and relative economic underdevelopment,
as well as the contemporaneousness of their demise and a democratisation
process within a relatively short amount of time.
While a burgeoning
corpus of scholarly literature devoted mainly to various domestic facets of
those regimes has emerged over the years – focusing especially on their
establishment, collapse and subsequent transition to democracy – the
ramifications of the international environment in which those dictatorships
functioned have not been adequately explored, certainly not within a
comparative context. Ironically, this lacuna may mask the regimes’
vulnerability to international circumstances and the influence of broader Cold War
trends.
Internationally,
the critical period of the late 1960s and early 1970s was marked by a
widespread pursuit of new approaches to old conflicts. The two superpowers USA
and Soviet Union sought to bring relief to decades of escalating tension through
détente – an array of negotiations and treaties recognising each other’s
‘interests’. Initiatives such as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT),
the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks (MBFR) and the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) raised hopes for a more peaceful
future. In turn, the collapse of the Bretton Woods monetary system in 1971 and
the oil price shock of 1973 ushered the end of almost thirty years of Western European economic
prosperity. Simultaneously, the rise of mass media facilitated an outburst of
protest movements against local and global manifestations of capitalism,
imperialism and colonialism.
The aim of this
workshop is to examine whether and to what extent the three southern European
right-wing dictatorships were exposed to these strong international currents,
including political, economic and cultural effects emanating from powerful
actors, most notably within the Western sphere of influence. The workshop will
also look beyond traditional governmental agents into the resistance movements
and social protest in order to broaden our understanding of the dynamics of
this period. The discussion will thus address the existing scholarly dearth by
exploring the linkages between international factors and domestic developments,
taking advantage of the increasing availability of archival sources from within
and outside the region.
PROGRAMME
09.00 -
9.30 Coffee and registration
09.30
– 11.15 Panel I: International dimension of the Greek Dictatorship Discussant: Prof Evanthis Hatzivassiliou
Konstantina
Maragkou (Yale) The international politics of the Greek Colonels' regime. Any
role for human rights?
Effie Pedaliu
(UWE), Unintended Consequences: Human Rights, European Security and
the International Implications of the Greek Dictatorship.
Dionysis
Chourchoulis (Queen Mary) & Eirini Karamouzi (LSE), "Between rhetoric
and realpolitik: the Western alliance and the Greek Colonels, 1967-1970".
Christos
Christidis(University of Athens). “Battle for Legitimacy: Trends of Greek
Resistance against the Colonels (1967-1974)”
11.15 Coffee Break
11.30
– 13.15 Panel II: International dimension of the Portuguese Dictatorship
Discussant: Carlos Gaspar
(IPRI, FCSH-UNL)
Aurora Santos (IHC, FCSH-UNL). Portuguese and Spanish Colonial Issues
in the United Nations
Rui Lopes (LSE,
IHC). Confronting Portugal within NATO, 1970-1974
Pedro Aires Oliveira (IHC, FCSH-UNL). A sense of
hopelessness? Portuguese exile communities and the opposition to the New State
(c. 1968-1974)
Jose Neves (IHC,
FCSH-UNL). Between Clandestinity and Statehood – the geopolitics of Portuguese
communists
13.15 –
14.15 Lunch
14.15 - 16.30 Panel III: International dimension of
the Spanish Dictatorship Discussant: Antonio Moneo (LSE IDEAS)
Eduardo Trillo (UNED).
The Spanish Decolonization. Guinea Equatorial 2and Western Sahara (1967-1974)
Elisa Chulia (UNED).
The Road to Press Freedom in Late Francoism (1966-1975). Domestic Conquest or
International Concession?
Romina di Carli (University of Navarra). Anticommunism and
Ostpolitik. The Holy See’s foreign policy towards dictatorships in Southern
Mediterranean in the times of the Déténte
Emmanuele Treglia (LUISS).
Eurocommunism and national approach: the case of the Spanish Communist Party in
comparative perspective
16.15 Coffee Break
16.30 – 17.15 Détente
– a turning point for the international position of the Southern European
regimes?
Roundtable: Piers
Ludlow, Arne Westad, Paul Preston and Antonio Varsori
Chair: Svetozar Rajak
PARTICIPANTS
Romina di Carli, Dionysis Chourchouli, Christos Christidis, Elisa Chulia, Carlos Gaspar, Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, Eirini Karamouzi, Rui Lopes, Piers Ludlow, Konstantina Maragkou, Antonio Moneo, José Neves, Pedro Aires Oliveira, Effie Pedaliu, Paul Preston, Svetozar Rajak, Aurora Santos, Emmanuele Treglia, Eduardo Trillo, Antonio Varsori, Odd Arne Westad
BIOS
Romina
di Carli is
Assistant Lecturer at Public University of Navarra. She graduated in Modern
History by the Studies University of Trieste. She did a European PhD in Spanish
Modern History (UCM, 2007). Her research focuses on the relationships between
the Catholic Church and the Spanish Government from 1960 to 1978. She held a
Hispanic grant holder of the Italian Foreign Office in 2011 (Humanities
Department of CSIC), pre-doctoral grant holder from 2002 to 2006 (Contemporary
History Department of UCM) and Marie Curie grant holder in 2004-2005 (Jean
Monnet Faculty of South Paris University). She took part in various conferences
and seminars in Spain, France and Germany. She is the author of the book El
derecho a la libertad religiosa en la transición democrática de España (2009)
and of several articles in academic journals such as Historia Actual Online,
Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea, Cristianesimo nella Storia and Spagna
Contemporanea. She worked as Marie Curie researcher for the research project
Convictions et croyances religieuses des individus et des communautés en droit
eropéen et communautaire (South Paris University; director: Brigitte
Basdevant-Gaudemet), and from 2011 onwards, she is member of two research
group: research group UPNA-315 “Historia y Economía” (Public University of
Navarra; director: José Miguel Lana Berasain) and research group HUM315
“Población, medio ambiente y desarrollo urbano en la provincia de Cádiz” (Cádiz
University; director: Julio Pérez Serrano).
Dionysis
Chourchoulis holds
a PhD on the Southern Flank of NATO in the 1950s, from the Department of
History, Queen Mary University of London. He also holds an MA in Modern and
Contemporary Greek History from National University of Athens, as well as an
MSc in History of International Relations from the London School of Economics
and Political Science (LSE). His academic interests include political, military
and economic history during the Interwar, Second World War and Cold War periods
in the Balkans, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. Currently he
writes the biography of Themistocles Sofoulis.
Christos
Christidis studied History at the department of History and
Archeology of the University of Athens. He holds an MA in Modern and
Contemporary Greek History from the University of Athens and he is currently
doing his PhD at the same department. His thesis topic is “The Center Union’s
‘Relentless Struggle’, 1961-1963”. His research interests include Political
Ideology, Modern Greek Political History and the Cyprus Question. Recent
publications include Christos Christidis (ed.), Cypriot Reflections (Athens, 2011) [in Greek]
Elisa
Chulia. Magister
Artium in Communication (major), History and German Philology from the Johannes
Gutenberg University Mainz (GFR), master’s degree from the Center of Advanced
Studies in Social Sciences of the Juan March Institute (Madrid) and PhD in
Political Science and Sociology from the Complutense University Madrid. Since
2003 she is associate professor of the Faculty of Political Science and
Sociology of the National Distance Education University. Between December 2007
and July 2011 she held the position of dean of this Faculty. Her main research
has focused on mass media and public opinion control in dictatorships, the role
of families in the Spanish society and the political and social challenges
derived from population ageing, in particular pension reforms.
Carlos
Gaspar. Senior
Researcher, Portuguese Institute of International Relations. Professor of
International Relations, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Senior Advisor to the
Board of the Fundação Oriente. Read Law and History at the Universidade
Clássica de Lisboa. MA in Political Science and International Relations,
Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Former Adviser to
President Ramalho Eanes (1977-1986), President Mário Soares (1986-1996) and
President Jorge Sampaio (1996-2006). Director of the Portuguese Institute of
International Relations (IPRI-UNL) (2006-2011). Advisor, Instituto de Defesa
Nacional. Lecturer, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. Member of the European
Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). Member of the European China Research and
Academic Network.
Evanthis
Hatzivassiliou is
an associate professor of contemporary history at the History Department of the
University of Athens. He is the editor of the 'Modern and Contemporary History'
series of Patakis Publications
(Athens), a member of the Greek-Turkish Forum, and member of the Consultative
Committee of the Foundation for Parliamentarianism and Democracy of the Greek Parliament. He has published six
books amongst which Greece and the Cold War: Frontline State,
1952-1967(Routledge).
Eirini
Karamouzi is
a Pinto Post-Doctoral Fellow at LSE IDEAS for the 2011-2011 academic year. She
completed her PhD entitled 'Greece's Path to EEC membership, 1974-1979: The
View from Brussels' at the International History department of LSE. She has an
MSc on European Politics and Governance from the LSE and a BA in History and
Archaeology from University of Athens. She is currently Book Review Editor for
the Cold War History Journal and was until recently Programme
assistant of the Balkans International Affairs Programme. She teaches at LSE
and Queen Mary mostly on post-war Western Europe.
Rui
Lopes has
recently completed a PhD in International
History at the LSE, with the title: “Between Cold War and Colonial Wars: The making
of West German policy towards the Portuguese dictatorship, 1968-1974”. At LSE,
he is currently a teaching fellow for the course ‘LSE100’ as well as a graduate teaching assistant for the
course ‘International History of the Cold War, 1945-1975’. He is also managing
editor of the journal Cold War History,
as well as researcher with the Instituto de História Contemporânea, at
the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. In
2010/2011, he was visiting tutor and
lecturer for the course ‘Africa in the Global Political Economy’ in the
Department of Politics of Goldsmiths, University of London
Piers
Ludlow’s main research interests lie
in the history of Western Europe since 1945, and in particular in the
historical roots of the European integration process and the early stages of
development of the EU. He is also interested in the history of the cold war in
Europe and is an editor of Cold War History. His recent research has
focused on the development of transatlantic relations during the cold war – and
in particular in the way in which the Americans sought to balance their
bilateral and multilateral dealings with their Western European
allies. The eventual plan is to produce a wide-ranging monograph on this
theme, drawing upon research from both US and European archives. In the
shorter term, Dr. Ludlow is also planning a detailed historical investigation
of the Treaty of Rome negotiations.
Konstantina
Maragkou
is
a lecturer at Yale University. She received
her PhD in History and MPhil in Historical
Studies from the University of
Cambridge
and a BA in Modern History, Economic History and Politics from the
University of London.
She had previously held fellowships at Yale, LSE, NYU.
Her first book on Britain and the Greek
Colonels is published by Columbia
University
Press/Hurst & Co, and her articles have appeared in edited volumes
and peer-reviewed
journals. Her current project deals with the comparative
development,
resolution and legacy of the Southern European human rights
crises.
Antonio
Moneo obtained his Ph.D. in Political Science at the
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (Spain), in which he explored the
constitutional transformations in Yugoslavia (1946-1989). His research focuses
on the institutionalisation of authoritarian regimes, the Cold War, the
Balkans, and post-electoral revolutions in Eurasia. He has been a fellow at the
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and a visiting fellow at LSE
IDEAS (UK, 2009), the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade (Serbia, 2008)
and at the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (Serbia, 2007). He is the
co-director of www.eurasianet.es, a virtual
platform for researchers interested in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and has
been the Balkan International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. His publications
include several articles on the institutionalisation of the titoist
regime between 1946 and 1989. He has been a teaching assistant at the UNED
(Spain) of Comparative Politics, and Spanish Political System in 19th and 20th
centuries, and has also taught History of Eastern Europe at the University Juan
Carlos I.
José Neves is Assistant
Professor at the Department of History of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e
Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His main publication is the book “Comunismo e
Nacionalismo em Portugal – Política, Cultura e História no Século XX” in 2008. He was
Visiting Professor in the Department of History at King's College London in
2011.
Pedro Aires Oliveira is an Assistant Professor at Faculdade de Ciências
Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (History Department) and member
of the Instituto de História Contemporânea (IHC) and Instituto Português de
Relações Internacionais (IPRI-UNL). In 2007 he published Os Despojos da Aliança. A Grã-Bretanha e a Questão
Colonial Portuguesa, 1945-1975 (awarded with the Fundação Mário Soares prize
for Contemporary History), which examines the role of the colonial question on
the evolution of the Anglo-Portuguese relationship after the Second World War.
He is now working on a collective project, a new history of the Portuguese
overseas empire, in which he will be responsible for the contemporary period
(1825-1975).
Effie
Pedaliu is a senior lecturer in
International History at the University of the West of England-Bristol. She is
the author of Britain, Italy and the Origins of the Cold War,
(Palgrave/Macmillan, 2003) and many articles in journals and chapters in edited
collections on the Cold War. She co-edited with J. W. Young, the Special Issue:
Conflict, Security and the Cold War: Essays in Memory of Saki Dockrill, Diplomacy
and Statecraft, 22/1, March 2011. Her book The Contemporary
Mediterranean World will be published by Routledge in 2012. Dr Pedaliu is a
member of the peer review college of the AHRC and a Fellow of the Royal
Historical Society.
Paul
Preston
studied for his undergraduate degree at the Oriel College, Oxford before moving
to the University of Reading where he gained his MA in European Studies. He
moved back to Oriel College to work on his PhD. He returned to Reading to take
up a post of Lecturer before moving on to Queen Mary College, London. He joined
the LSE as a Professor in International History in 1991. Professor Preston has
been awarded the 2005 Premi Internacional Ramon Llull, awarded jointly by the
Institut de Estudis Catalans and the Institut Ramon Llull. The prize is the
most prestigious international prize for academic achievement given in
Catalonia. In 2006 he won the Premi Trias Fargas and has also been awarded
Spain's highest honour, the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Isabel la Católica. On 20
June 2006, at a ceremony presided over by the King of Spain, Professor Paul
Preston was inaugurated into the of the Academia Europea de Yuste, where he was
given the Marcel Proust Chair.
Svetozar
Rajak
is a lecturer in the LSE’s international History department. He
is also the Academic Director of LSE IDEAS, centre for the study of
international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy at the LSE and is the Head
of the Balkan International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS. Dr Rajak is the
editor of the journal Cold War History, and co-editor of a multi-volume
Collection of Documents on the 'Soviet-British Relations in the Cold War',
sponsored by the British and Russian Academies of Sciences. He has recently
published a book Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union In the Early Cold War:
Reconciliation, Comradeship, Confrontation, 1953-1957” (London, New York:
Routledge, 2010). He has contributed a chapter on The Cold War in the Balkans,
1945-1956: From the Greek Civil War to Soviet-Yugoslav-Normalization in Melvyn
P. Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (eds), Cambridge History of the Cold War, Volume
I: Origins (Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010) and is the
author of numerous articles on the Cold War and contemporary history of the
Balkans.
Aurora Santos is a PhD candidate at Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e
Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. For her Master, she studied the work
of the Decolonization Committee - brought up by the
United Nations Organization in 1961 - concerning the Portuguese
colonialism. Now she
continues her research regarding the United Nations efforts in the struggle for
independence of the national liberation movements of Portuguese colonies. In
her proposed dissertation,
entitled “The United Nations and the Portuguese Colonial Issue (1960-1975)”,
she intends to explore the international dimension of Portuguese
decolonization.
Emmanuele
Treglia
(1982) is a PhD candidate in Political History and postdoctoral researcher at
Luiss (Rome). He is a member of the Center of Historical Researches on Spanish
Democracy (Madrid) and in 2010 he won the I Prize for Young Historians “Javier
Tusell”. Since 2012 he is secretary of the Association of Historians of the
Present. His main reasearch fields are the history of antifrancoism, the Spanish
Transition, the communism and the anarchism. He is author of several articles
in specialized journals. Recently he has coordinated Eurocomunismo
(monographic dossier of Historia del Presente) and he has published Fuera de
las catacumbas. La política del PCE y el movimiento obrero (1956-1977).
Eduardo Trillo is
associate professor of Public International Law and International Relations at
UNED University in Madrid, Spain. He successfully obtained his PhD in 2005 at
the same university with a research on “statelessness and International Law,
the right to have a nationality”. He has also worked for more than 10 years as
a consultant for International organizations, such as the United Nations, the
OSCE and the European Union, in the fields of democratisation, rule of Law,
human rights, good governance, institutional capacity building, support to
civil society and public administration reform. Under the pseudonym of Eduardo
Soto-Trillo, he has published several books: “Voces sin voz” (voices without a
voice), Bogotá, Colombia, 2002, on the conditions the civilians live under the
guerrilla group FARC´s rule; “Los olvidados”, Madrid, Spain, 2005, on the
historical background and current situation of Equatorial Guinee, and “Viaje al
abandono” (Travelling to abandonment), Madrid, Spain, 2011, on the historical
background and current situation in Western Sahara. His most recent publication
is a chapter on Franco´s sentimental life for the work titled “Dictators´
women”, Madrid, Spain, 2011.
Antonio Varsori is a professor
of History of International relations and
Director of the Department of Politics, Law
and International Studies at
the
University of Padua. He is vice-chairman of the liaison committee of
historians of
contemporary Europe at the EU Commission and President of
the Italian Society
of International History. He has published extensively
on issues such as the cold war, the European
integration, Italy's foreign
policy,
Britain's foreign policy. Among his recent publications in volume:
"La Cenerentola
d'Europa ? L'Italia e l'integrazione europea dal 1947 a
oggi" (Soveria Mannelli: 2010);
"European Union History Themes and
Debates" ed. with W. Kaiser
(Basingstoke: 2010); "Democrazie. L'Europa
meridionale e la fine delle dittature"
with M. Del Pero, V. Gavin, F.
Guirao
(Florence: 2010); "Europe in the international arena in the 1970s
Entering a Different
World" ed. with G. Migani (Brussels/Bern: 2011). He
is completing a
volume on Italy and the changing international system
between 1989 and 1992.
Odd Arne
Westad is Professor of
International History at LSE and an expert on the history of the Cold War era
and on contemporary international affairs. He co-directs LSE IDEAS, a
centre for international affairs, diplomacy and strategy, is an editor of the
journal Cold War History, and a
general editor of the three-volume Cambridge
History of the Cold War. Professor Westad lectures widely on China's
foreign affairs, on Western interventions in Africa and Asia, and on foreign
policy strategy. Professor Westad's most recent book, The Global Cold War:
Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, received
the Bancroft Price, the Michael Harrington Award, and the Akira Iriye
International History Book Award. It has been translated into fourteen
languages. He is now working on a history of Chinese foreign affairs since
1750.
Acknowledgements
The organisers would like to thank the LSE IDEAS and Mr Mutilinaios for
their continuous support.
They are also grateful for the contribution of the
Instituto de História Contemporânea (Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas,
Universidade Nova de Lisboa).
