The lecture will explore U.S.-Greek relations concerning internal policing and intelligence cooperation from 1947 to 1974 in an attempt to rethink the nature of hegemonic influence in transatlantic peripheries during the Cold War. It uses the concept of shared sovereignty to capture the negotiated, asymmetrical, and yet interactive nature of U.S. security assistance and its local implementation. Moving beyond unilateral models of American hegemony, the lecture will provide a holistic view of security and reveal how these ties were shaped through constant negotiation and adaptation on both sides. Most crucially, rather than treating Greece as a passive client, the lecture highlights local agency and how peripheral actors could influence or redirect external security agendas. This case provides a lens for understanding similar dynamics across the Cold War periphery and contributes to broader debates on asymmetrical interdependence and informal empire. By bridging historical analysis and international relations theory, it traces the roots of enduring patterns of uneven sovereignty and contested alliance politics that still resonate in today’s global security order.

Speaker: 

Christos Aliprantis is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the American College of Thessaloniki in Greece. His research interests and publications focus on state formation, policing, migration, and nationalism in Europe from the nineteenth century to the present. He obtained his PhD in modern European history at the University of Cambridge and thereafter held postdoctoral positions at the European University Institute, the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, the Ruhr University in Bochum, and the Center for Hellenic Studies of Harvard University. He is the co-editor, with Anna Ross, of the forthcoming volume Rethinking Statehood in an Age of Revolutions, 1830–1880 (The British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2025).

Moderator: 

Harris Mylonas is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and editor-in-chief of Nationalities Papers. He is interested in the processes of nation- and state-building, migration and diaspora policies, and political development. His work contributes to our understanding of states’ management of diversity that may originate from national minorities, immigrants, diasporas, or refugees. He is particularly interested in the role of decision makers’ perceptions about foreign involvement in their domestic affairs and the impact these perceptions have on the planning and implementation of state policies. His latest book is Varieties of Nationalism: Communities, Narratives, Identities, co-authored with Maya Tudor.