Why the Eastern Mediterranean needs a Lisbon 2.0 doctrine before Turkey, Russia and American uncertainty redraw Europe’s security map
by Shay Gal
(Shay Gal works with governments and defence leadership on sovereign risk, alliance leverage, and cross-theatre security dynamics. He previously served as Vice President of External Relations at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and as a senior advisor to Israeli government ministers.)
Copyright: @ 2026 Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 1 May 2026
Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Re-search Institute for European and American Studies
There are moments when a region discovers that its most dangerous error was not about its enemies, but about its friends.
Israel, Greece and Cyprus have reached that moment. Greece has faced it in the Aegean, in islands framed by Ankara as negotiable geography, and in a standing threat of war over rights it is entitled to exercise. Cyprus has lived it through occupation, division, drilling and the normalisation of an illegal reality on European soil. Israel has come to it through Syria, Gaza, Ankara’s rhetoric and the arrival of Turkey as a strategic actor near its operational perimeter. Disputes are used as pressure theatre.... Read more