‘Through Diplomatic Channels’. Science, Diplomacy, and Greece’s Efforts for Election to the IAEA Board of Governors, 1957–1961 *

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Abstract

This paper examines Greek efforts to secure a position on the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during its early years. Fuelled by pride in his country’s advancements in nuclear matters and bolstered by what he saw to be a positive alliance to the United States, Admiral Athanasios Spanidis, president of the Greek Atomic Energy Commission, attended the first General Conference of the IAEA in 1957 with high hopes. However, Spanidis and Greece soon discovered that the diplomatic game in this novel international setting was much more challenging than anticipated. Greek ambitions suffered a double setback: not only did the US fail to support Greece’s candidacy for the IAEA board, instead it backed Turkey’s application for this prestigious role — at a time of heightened tensions between Greece and Turkey regarding the unresolved Cyprus issue. This paper argues that Greece had quickly to adapt to the power plays of diplomacy within the multilateral framework of the IAEA. Learning from the bitter experience with the US in 1957, Greece strategically sought to forge relationships with other influential countries within the Western Bloc. This chapter shows how by carefully navigating the intricacies of the multilateral diplomatic dynamics at work within the IAEA, Greece secured a position on its Board of Governors in 1961. The analysis also underlines how the internal dynamics of the IAEA were powerfully shaped by the wider geopolitical developments of the 1950s–1960s Cold War.