This book 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.

We willingly imagine that the speed of development of events has always remained constant here on earth. This is reflected in the fact that it is generally believed that the rate of natural phenomena is the same today as it has always been in the past and will remain this way more or less in the future. It is, now, a fact that the speed of progression of events is not constant over time. It was ascertained that since around the beginning of the 20th century the rate has accelerated in various fields, hence the term "acceleration of history" came to describe this phenomenon. This acceleration continues its course today and will even intensify. Examples meeting these historical vaults in short time periods are many, either local or international, that contributed to the change of the direction of history. Under any circumstances though, the "mature" conditions for change are not enough without the human interference. This phenomenon has been referred to as the "acceleration of history" in order to emphasize the fact that if in the past a certain lapse of time was necessary for history to unfold-for the events to take place-today, and starting around the beginning of the 20th century, this time lapse was becoming increasingly shorter. The events today, therefore, have intensified much more than in the past. So, which are considered as the main acceleration periods in history? Which events or developments de-normalized or deeply reformed the then acceptable norms, either national or international? Which events or developments changed the hard bits of history? These are the questions that we will try to answer in this edited volume.

In the context of rapid developments in Turkey and its broader geopolitical environment over the past decade, this book examines and conceptualises Turkey's changing foreign policy towards a more assertive and revisionist paradigm. More specifically it details the rhetorical and practical-political content of what is termed 'Lausanne Syndrome'; namely, Turkey's efforts in recent years - under the AKP government - to revise the geopolitical status quo brought about by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) in its broader neighbourhood. By employing a Neoclassical Realist theoretical framework and paying particular attention to ideational factors, the book argues that, contrary to the more widely known 'Sevres Syndrome', which predicts a more cautious brand of Turkish foreign policy, the 'Lausanne Syndrome' is associated with a different political-ideological current and predicts a more revisionist type of foreign policy behaviour, even though it has emerged out of the same historical circumstances and been triggered by the same external geopolitical factors. The impact of the 'Lausanne Syndrome' on Turkey's foreign policy behaviour is subsequently tested in four case studies from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: Cyprus, Libya, Syria, and Iraq.