The US policy on the Cyprus question : continuity and change

Abstract

This thesis analyzes continuity and change in the US policy on the Cyprus question in chronological order, starting from 1950s, when US interest in the island began to increase by the beginning of the Cold War, to this day. It mainly puts the determinants of US policy in the Cold War and post-Cold War period and tries to find continuing and changing aspects of it while looking at its effects on finding a solution to the problem. It examines the Annan plan, as the latest and most important effort of the international community for the solution, in detail. The thesis aims to put forward a general picture of US policy on Cyprus especially focusing on crisis periods, and thus explain its role in the evolution of the conflict. The study claims that policy of the US on Cyprus has been very much related with its interests in Mediterranean, its strategic security needs in the region and neighbouring regions and its relations with Turkey and Greece. These determinants indicate that main lines of US policy on Cyprus have not changed radically through this almost fifty years old conflict although it sometimes showed little variations.