Karamouzi, E. orcid.org/0000-0002-5871-1601 and Grealy, D. (2024) Selling the junta abroad: PR campaigns and UK-Greek relations during the Wilson government, 1967-69. Contemporary British History, 38 (3). pp. 383-403. ISSN 1361-9462
Abstract
The propagandistic machine of the military dictatorship that ruled Greece between 1967 and 1974 has provided a focal point of scholarly inquiry in recent years. However, research has focused on the domestic front—the role of radio, television, and cinema—and has completely neglected the issue of public relations in the foreign policy arena. Nothing is known about how the dictatorship, which held an exceedingly weak reputational hand, strove to remake its image to the outside world. This article addresses this historiographical lacuna, exploring the Greek junta’s attempts to improve its international reputation by enlisting the services of foreign public relations (PR) firms. By demonstrating the interplay of nation branding and foreign policy in this way, this article highlights the underappreciated role of transnational non-governmental actors such as PR firms in the ‘nation branding’ of authoritarian regimes. In the process, it reveals how the lobbying activities of a London-based PR firm enlisted by the junta vitiated UK–Greek relations during Harold Wilson’s Labour government, and culminated in an important, and underexplored, flashpoint in political discourse concerning the outside interests of parliamentarians and standards of integrity in British public life.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | Greece; UK; public relations; branding; junta |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of History (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 May 2024 09:26 |
Last Modified: | 20 Nov 2024 10:55 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13619462.2024.2349969 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:212115 |