The Mediterranean : Europe's southern flank or Asia's western flank? (1945-1960)

Abstract

A combination of observations and research contributed to the founding ideas of this project. The emergence of the Superpowers prior to the end of World War II and their presence within European territory are unquestionable facts. Their presence in the Mediterranean is also a certainty. Some authors have blamed the wellsprings of the Cold War on Marxism and Leninist ideology, with its doctrine struggle leading to revolution on a world-wide scale. Others reject such a traditional analysis and state that the Soviets were misconceived. Nevertheless, both the Americans and the Soviets gamed from their presence m Europe; economically, politically and militarily, both superpowers enhanced their power and thrived off European division. This feeling was extended to the Mediterranean and subsequently on a global level. In the light of this, the research question to be analysed will be: "Was the Mediterranean after WW II part of Europe's Southern flank or part of Asia's Western flank?" For this question to be answered a number of objectives have to be made and analysed. Given the limited context of this thesis, it was decided that only certain areas would be discussed, mainly: • the idea behind the spheres of influence and the emergence of the Truman Doctrine; • Western alignment amongst Mediterranean states; • non-alignment amongst Mediterranean states; • Middle-Eastern affairs and the superpowers in the fifties and the Eisenhower Doctrine; and • clamping the Mediterranean to global world affairs. This dissertation concludes that notwithstanding the American dominance in power politics in post WW II Europe, by the late 1950s the Soviet Union had established a solid foothold in the Mediterranean.