The Foreign Policy of the Republic of Cyprus: Local, Regional and International Dimensions (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), edited by Zenonas Tziarras, was recently published.

It examines the foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus, particularly since 2004—the year of its accession to the European Union and of the failed Annan Plan V of the United Nations which aimed to solve the decades-old Cyprus Problem. Scholarly work about the politics and foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) has been almost entirely analyzed through the prism of the Cyprus Problem. This is not without justification since the Cyprus Problem is indeed central to the social, political, and economic life of Cyprus.

However, Cyprus is located in a highly neuralgic area of historical and geopolitical importance that is, more often than not, characterized by rapid developments, instability, and insecurity. Therefore, the RoC’s politics and foreign policy go well beyond the confines of the Cyprus Problem, or so they should. Although the subject of the book is not international by definition, the book touches upon many regional and international dimensions that render it relevant for anyone who wants to better understand not just Cyprus but also the broader region and its importance for regional and international actors.

This book is pioneering in many ways. Among others:

1. It is the first of its kind. There is no other book in Greek or English that looks at the RoC’s foreign policy so comprehensively. The focus of this book is also contemporary as it covers the post-2004 period.
2. It is the first time that a work on Cyprus tries so intentionally to look at the country’s foreign policy beyond the Cyprus Problem and examine to what extent this is possible.
3. In it, the editor, Zenonas Tziarras, develops for the first time the concept of Foreign Policy Maturity which is applied throughout the book.
4. It includes an original periodization of the RoC foreign policy history.
5. It includes the first ever work on gender mainstreaming and the RoC’s foreign policy.
6. It offers Turkish-Cypriot perspectives of the RoC’s foreign policy.
7. It provides for the first time an extensive assessment of the maturity of the RoC foreign policy as well as its capacity for a grand strategy.

Find the book’s Table of Contents below:

You can buy the book in hardcopy or electronic form here.