Where will the NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026 take place?

The NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026 will be held in the city of Athens, GRC.

What is the primary focus of the NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026?

The dialogues aim to address critical geopolitical and socioeconomic issues impacting the broader Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East regions, fostering understanding and collaboration.

NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026

Name: NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026
Start: 2026-02-17T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-02-17T00:00:00Z
Location: Athens

Feb 17, 2026Athens, GreeceIn-person

Registration open

The NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026, held in the city of Athens, GRC, serves as a crucial platform for addressing the complex geopolitical and socioeconomic landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This event brings together diverse stakeholders to foster dialogue and explore collaborative solutions for regional challenges. Organized by the Mihalos Foundation, the dialogues aim to facilitate a deeper understanding of the intricate dynamics at play in this strategically vital area. By convening experts and decision-makers, the event seeks to contribute to stability and cooperation in a region marked by intersecting interests and ongoing developments.

Committees & topics

Topics
The Eastern Mediterranean in the New Transatlantic Reality under the Trump Era · Energy Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean · Maritime Routes and Freedom of Navigation in the Eastern Mediterranean · Regional Instability in the Eastern Mediterranean · Migration Pressures in the Eastern Mediterranean · Great Power Competition in the Eastern Mediterranean · Alliances and Partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean · Strategic Importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for the United States, NATO, and the European Union

Why it matters

The Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East are regions of immense strategic importance, characterized by a confluence of political, economic, and security interests. Events like the NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026 are vital because they provide a dedicated space for structured conversations on these multifaceted issues. Such dialogues are essential for identifying common ground, mitigating potential conflicts, and fostering pathways toward sustainable regional development.

The discussions at this event are particularly relevant given the evolving global power dynamics and the increasing interconnectedness of international affairs. Understanding the perspectives of various actors and engaging in constructive dialogue can help to shape more informed policies and responses to regional challenges. This proactive approach to diplomacy and collaboration is critical for navigating the complexities of the modern international system.

Furthermore, the location of the dialogues in GRC, a country with significant historical and contemporary ties to both regions, underscores the importance of its role in facilitating such discussions. The event's focus on bridging understanding among different actors highlights a commitment to diplomatic engagement as a primary tool for addressing regional tensions and promoting stability.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes of the NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026, participants should undertake a comprehensive review of the current geopolitical and economic trends impacting the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. This includes understanding the historical context of regional relations and the various factors that contribute to both cooperation and conflict. A thorough analysis of the key actors and their respective interests is paramount.

Prospective attendees can benefit from applying frameworks such as the "Power-Interest Grid" to map out the influence and concerns of different stakeholders. Additionally, exploring concepts like "Hidden Stakeholders" can reveal less obvious but equally impactful actors in the region. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for developing nuanced perspectives and contributing meaningfully to the discussions.

Given the focus on dialogue and collaboration, familiarizing oneself with "Engagement Strategies" will be advantageous. This includes preparing to articulate positions clearly, listen actively, and seek areas of mutual benefit. The "Dynamic Analysis" of ongoing events and potential future scenarios will also be helpful in anticipating discussion points and formulating informed contributions. Ultimately, a well-rounded preparation will enable participants to fully leverage the opportunity presented by these dialogues.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Greece

Greece, as the host nation, plays a central role in facilitating dialogue and promoting stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging its geographical position and diplomatic ties.

Role in topic

GRC is a key player in the Eastern Mediterranean, with significant interests in regional security, energy, and maritime boundaries. Its historical and cultural connections to the broader region position it as a natural convener for discussions aimed at fostering cooperation and understanding among diverse stakeholders.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

The Eastern Mediterranean in the New Transatlantic Reality under the Trump Era

The Eastern Mediterranean has long sat at the intersection of European, Middle Eastern, and North African security, but the region's strategic profile has sharpened since the mid-2010s with the discovery of major offshore gas fields, the Syrian civil war, and rising Turkish-Greek-Cypriot maritime disputes. The first Trump administration (2017-2021) recalibrated U.S. engagement by lifting the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus, deepening defense cooperation with Greece through the Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement, and brokering the Abraham Accords, which reshaped Israel's regional posture. At the same time, transatlantic friction over burden-sharing, Iran policy, and relations with Turkey complicated NATO cohesion in the basin. The return of the Trump administration in 2025 has reopened questions about the durability of U.S. commitments to European security, the future of Ukraine-related sanctions architecture, and Washington's tolerance for European strategic autonomy. For the Eastern Mediterranean specifically, this raises the stakes of U.S. positioning on the Greece-Turkey maritime delimitation dispute, the Cyprus question, post-Assad Syria, and the Gaza reconstruction process. European Union members are simultaneously pursuing closer defense integration and energy diversification away from Russian hydrocarbons, with the Eastern Mediterranean serving as both a supply corridor and a potential flashpoint. The committee will assess how a transactional U.S. foreign policy interacts with entrenched regional rivalries, whether NATO's southern flank can be coherently managed, and how middle powers in the basin hedge between Washington, Brussels, Moscow, and Beijing.

Key players

Energy Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean

Major offshore natural gas discoveries since 2009 — including Israel's Tamar and Leviathan, Cyprus's Aphrodite and Calypso, and Egypt's Zohr — transformed the Eastern Mediterranean into a prospective energy hub. The 2020 establishment of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) in Cairo institutionalized cooperation among Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Jordan, Italy, and the Palestinian Authority, while Turkey was notably excluded amid overlapping maritime claims. The proposed EastMed pipeline to Europe lost U.S. backing in 2022 on commercial and environmental grounds, shifting focus toward LNG exports via Egyptian liquefaction terminals. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the EU's REPowerEU plan accelerated European demand for non-Russian gas, elevating the basin's importance. However, the October 2023 Hamas attack and the ensuing Gaza war disrupted Israeli production at the Tamar field, while attacks on Red Sea shipping affected LNG flows. Overlapping EEZ claims — particularly the Turkey-Libya 2019 maritime memorandum, which Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt reject — continue to obstruct unified development. Delegates must weigh how to reconcile commercial viability, climate transition commitments, and unresolved maritime boundaries, and whether multilateral frameworks like the EMGF can be expanded or whether bilateral export arrangements will dominate.

Key players

Maritime Routes and Freedom of Navigation in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Eastern Mediterranean links the Suez Canal — through which roughly 12 percent of global trade passed before 2024 — to European markets, making its sea lanes among the most strategically valuable in the world. The basin hosts dense commercial traffic, undersea cables, gas pipelines, and the U.S. Sixth Fleet's principal area of operations. Disputes over maritime delimitation between Greece and Turkey, between Turkey and Cyprus, and over the Turkey-Libya MoU have repeatedly produced naval standoffs, most notably the 2020 Oruç Reis incident. Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping since late 2023 have rerouted significant container traffic around the Cape of Good Hope, reducing Suez transits and pressuring Egyptian revenues while elevating the importance of Eastern Mediterranean ports such as Piraeus, Haifa, Alexandria, and Mersin. Sabotage of undersea cables and pipelines in adjacent seas has heightened concerns about subsea infrastructure protection, with NATO establishing a Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure in 2024. The committee will address how UNCLOS principles apply to overlapping claims, how to secure chokepoints and subsea assets, and how to manage the militarization of commercial sea lanes amid great-power competition.

Key players

Regional Instability in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Eastern Mediterranean is bordered by states experiencing overlapping crises: the unresolved aftermath of Syria's civil war and the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Lebanon's political and economic collapse compounded by the 2024 Israel-Hezbollah war, the ongoing Gaza war and humanitarian catastrophe, and Libya's continued political fragmentation. Each of these conflicts generates spillover in the form of refugee flows, weapons proliferation, non-state armed groups, and external military deployments by Russia, Iran, Turkey, the Gulf states, and Western powers. The Cyprus question remains frozen since 1974, while Greek-Turkish tensions periodically escalate over airspace, islets, and migration. Egypt faces economic strain and security pressures along its borders with Libya and Gaza. The cumulative effect is a region where conventional interstate disputes coexist with hybrid threats, proxy dynamics, and humanitarian emergencies. Delegates will need to consider whether existing multilateral frameworks — the UN, EU, Arab League, and NATO — can produce coordinated responses, or whether the basin will continue to be managed through ad hoc bilateral arrangements and crisis diplomacy.

Key players

Migration Pressures in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Eastern Mediterranean route — from Turkey toward Greece, Cyprus, and Bulgaria — was the principal corridor for the 2015-2016 migration crisis, when more than one million arrivals reached the EU. The 2016 EU-Turkey Statement reduced flows in exchange for financial assistance and visa commitments, but the arrangement has been periodically destabilized, including by Ankara's 2020 decision to open its borders. Arrivals to Cyprus, Greek islands, and Italy via Libya and Tunisia have risen again since 2022, driven by the Syrian conflict, Afghan displacement, sub-Saharan instability, and economic collapse in Lebanon. The EU's New Pact on Migration and Asylum, adopted in 2024, introduces solidarity mechanisms and accelerated border procedures, but implementation remains contested among member states. Frontline states — Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and Malta — argue for greater burden-sharing, while transit and origin states such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya seek financial and political concessions. Allegations of pushbacks, deaths at sea, and detention conditions have drawn sustained criticism from UNHCR and human rights bodies. The committee will examine how to reconcile border management with international protection obligations, the durability of EU-third country deals, and the role of climate-driven displacement in future flows.

Key players

Great Power Competition in the Eastern Mediterranean

The Eastern Mediterranean has become a theater of renewed great-power competition. Russia consolidated its presence through the 2015 intervention in Syria, the Tartus naval facility and Khmeimim airbase, and expanding ties with Libya's eastern faction; the fall of Assad in late 2024 has thrown the future of these bases into question. China has expanded commercial influence through Belt and Road investments, most prominently COSCO's majority stake in the Port of Piraeus and infrastructure projects in Egypt, Israel, and along the Suez corridor. The United States retains the dominant military footprint via the Sixth Fleet, Souda Bay, and rotational deployments in Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, but faces questions about long-term prioritization given competing demands in the Indo-Pacific. European powers — particularly France, Italy, and Germany — pursue their own Mediterranean strategies, occasionally diverging from Washington on Libya, Iran, and relations with Turkey. Middle powers including Turkey, Israel, Egypt, and the UAE actively hedge between the major blocs. Delegates should assess how layered competition affects regional stability, whether spheres of influence are emerging, and how smaller states preserve autonomy amid pressure to align.

Key players

Alliances and Partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean

Alliance architecture in the Eastern Mediterranean is layered and overlapping. NATO ties Greece, Turkey, and Italy to the United States and Western Europe, but intra-alliance disputes — most notably between Greece and Turkey — have repeatedly tested cohesion. The 2020 U.S.-Greece Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement expanded American access to bases at Souda Bay, Larissa, Stefanovikio, and Alexandroupoli, while U.S.-Cyprus defense cooperation has deepened since the 2020 lifting of the arms embargo. Beyond NATO, trilateral and quadrilateral formats have proliferated: the Greece-Cyprus-Israel partnership, the Greece-Cyprus-Egypt format, the I2U2 grouping linking the U.S., Israel, India, and the UAE, and the Abraham Accords framework connecting Israel with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. Turkey has pursued its own arrangements, including the 2019 Libya MoU, recent rapprochement with Egypt and the UAE, and renewed dialogue with Israel until October 2023. The EU's Common Security and Defence Policy and PESCO add another institutional layer. The committee will evaluate the coherence of these overlapping frameworks, the risk of bloc politics in a divided basin, and whether emerging minilateral formats complement or undermine NATO and the EU.

Key players

Strategic Importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for the United States, NATO, and the European Union

The Eastern Mediterranean sits at the southeastern edge of the Euro-Atlantic security space and the northwestern approach to the Middle East, making it strategically indispensable for the United States, NATO, and the EU. For Washington, the basin supports power projection into the Middle East, North Africa, and the Black Sea, hosts forward bases critical to operations against ISIS and to deterrence vis-à-vis Russia and Iran, and underpins the security of Israel and key Arab partners. NATO's 2022 Strategic Concept identified the southern flank as a priority, citing terrorism, instability, and Russian and Chinese activity in the region. For the EU, the Eastern Mediterranean is an external border, an energy corridor, a migration route, and a neighborhood policy zone. The bloc's REPowerEU strategy, Global Gateway initiative, and partnerships with Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon all reflect efforts to stabilize the southern neighborhood. Yet EU member states diverge on priorities: frontline states emphasize migration and Turkish assertiveness, while others focus on energy, climate, or relations with the Gulf. Delegates will examine how the three actors can align their strategic priorities, the implications of a more transactional U.S. approach under the second Trump administration, and whether the Eastern Mediterranean will be treated as a coherent strategic theater or a patchwork of crises.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

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Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

The Power-Interest Grid

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Advanced Negotiation

Multilateral Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

By committee

Frequently asked questions

NISYROS DIALOGUES Athens 2026

Feb 17, 2026Athens, GreeceIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
The Eastern Mediterranean in the New Transatlantic Reality under the Trump Era · Energy Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean · Maritime Routes and Freedom of Navigation in the Eastern Mediterranean · Regional Instability in the Eastern Mediterranean · Migration Pressures in the Eastern Mediterranean · Great Power Competition in the Eastern Mediterranean · Alliances and Partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean · Strategic Importance of the Eastern Mediterranean for the United States, NATO, and the European Union

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Greece

Greece, as the host nation, plays a central role in facilitating dialogue and promoting stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, leveraging its geographical position and diplomatic ties.

Role in topic