The Making of Portugal’s Mediterranean Policy

Portugal’s foreign policy has undergone great changes since the period of dictatorship. This could not be otherwise, given the limited and narrow scope of that period’s foreign policy, which only served an isolated and isolationist regime. This chapter examines the evolution of Portugal’s foreign policy from 1974 until today, taking the case of the Mediterranean, particularly the Maghreb, and attempting to understand why and how internal and external factors have influenced the unavoidable changes, as well as looking at what has changed in the way foreign policy is made in Portugal.