Regional Security Organizations and National Interests: Analyzing the NATO-Greek Relationship

This article analyzes the reasons which account for Greece\u27s continuing membership in the Atlantic Alliance, even though NATO has not lived up to expectations and has failed to protect the nation\u27s security against threats from Turkey. Following a brief examination of Greek attitudes toward NATO and the nature of dissatisfaction, the article argues that strategic concerns are, at best, of secondary importance. Instead, Greece\u27s continuing membership in the Alliance is a result of the nation\u27s economic ties to the West and the dependency of its military on NATO and Washington for advanced training, arms, war materiel, and other professional considerations. The article concludes that domestic industrial-military complexes of small countries become closely connected to and often depend on alliance industrial-military cornplexes. Leaving military alliances, therefore, becomes difficult for professional military as well as domestic economic interests