Greece has been profoundly affected by recent changes in the internationalenvironment, on its borders, and within the country itself. Manylong-standing assumptions about Greek interests and Greece_s role havefallen away and have been supplanted by new approaches. The country hasbecome progressively more modern and more European, and its internationalpolicy has become more sophisticated. At the same time, the geopoliticalscene has evolved in ways that present new challenges and new opportunitiesfor Athens in its relations with Europe, the United States, and neighboringcountries. Many of these challenges cross traditional regional boundariesand underscore Greece_s potential to play a transregional role, lookingoutward from Europe to the Mediterranean, Eurasia, and the Middle East. Thisreport explores the new geopolitical environment Greece faces, payingspecial attention to the implications for southeastern Europe andtransatlantic relations; explores options for Greek strategy; and offerssome new directions for policy in Greece and on both sides of the Atlantic.

This book explores competing definitions of Hellenism in the making of the Greek state by drawing on critical historical and geopolitical perspectives and their intersection with difference and exclusion. It examines Greece’s central role in shaping the state system, regional security, and nationalisms of the Balkans, the Black Sea, and the Eastern Mediterranean regions. Understanding the Greek State's social constitution helps learn about the past and present intentions and strategies as well as local, national, and European notions of security and identity. The book looks at the relation of subaltern communities to state power and the state’s ability and willingness to negotiate difference. It also explores how the State’s identity politics shaped regional geopolitics in the past two centuries. Chapters present case studies that shed light on the Hellenization of Jewish Thessaloniki, the Treaty of Lausanne’s making of Western Thrace’s Muslim minority, the role and modes of settlement, urbanization, and ‘bordering-as-statecraft’ in Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace, and the politics of erecting the Athens Mosque, the first officially-licensed mosque outside Western Thrace since Greek Independence. With examples from fieldwork in Greek cities and borderlands, this book offers a wealth of primary research from geographers and historians on the modern history of Greek statehood. It will be of key interest to scholars of political geography, international relations, and European history.

Cover -- Title page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction: A New Era of Gas -- 1. The Changing Global Gas Sector -- 2. The Politics and Commerce of American LNG Exports -- 3. The Politics of Supply: Russiaand Gazprom -- 4. The Politics of Dependence Transformed: Europe -- 5. The Politics of Transit: Ukraine and Belarus -- 6. The Politics of Isolated Suppliers: The Caucasus and Central Asia -- 7. The Politics of Demand: China and Beyond -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize • One of The Economist's top history books of the year From one of our leading historians, an important new history of the Greek War of Independence—the ultimate worldwide liberal cause célèbre of the age of Byron, Europe’s first nationalist uprising, and the beginning of the downward spiral of the Ottoman Empire—published two hundred years after its outbreak As Mark Mazower shows us in his enthralling and definitive new account, myths about the Greek War of Independence outpaced the facts from the very beginning, and for good reason. This was an unlikely cause, against long odds, a disorganized collection of Greek patriots up against what was still one of the most storied empires in the world, the Ottomans. The revolutionaries needed all the help they could get. And they got it as Europeans and Americans embraced the idea that the heirs to ancient Greece, the wellspring of Western civilization, were fighting for their freedom against the proverbial Eastern despot, the Turkish sultan. This was Christianity versus Islam, now given urgency by new ideas about the nation-state and democracy that were shaking up the old order. Lord Byron is only the most famous of the combatants who went to Greece to fight and die—along with many more who followed events passionately and supported the cause through art, music, and humanitarian aid. To many who did go, it was a rude awakening to find that the Greeks were a far cry from their illustrious forebears, and were often hard to tell apart from the Ottomans. Mazower does full justice to the realities on the ground as a revolutionary conspiracy triggered outright rebellion, and a fraying and distracted Ottoman leadership first missed the plot and then overreacted disastrously. He shows how and why ethnic cleansing commenced almost immediately on both sides. By the time the dust settled, Greece was free, and Europe was changed forever. It was a victory for a completely new kind of politics—international in its range and affiliations, popular in its origins, romantic in sentiment, and radical in its goals. It was here on the very edge of Europe that the first successful revolution took place in which a people claimed liberty for themselves and overthrew an entire empire to attain it, transforming diplomatic norms and the direction of European politics forever, and inaugurating a new world of nation-states, the world in which we still live.

This book explores the new Greek exoticism by examining political and cultural mechanisms that contribute to Greece’s image and self-image construction. The contributions shed light on the subject from different perspectives, including political science, history of ideas, sociology, cultural studies, and art criticism. In the first part, the book provides a historical review with a focus on philhellenism, perceptions of antiquity and modernity, and the evolution of Greece as an idea. The second part looks at the current Greek crisis and analyses ideological, political and cultural aspects and stereotypes that contributed to the formation of contemporary Greek culture. The third and final part discusses notions such as aestheticism, idealism and pragmaticism, and deconstructs narrations of Greece through artistic media, such as films and exhibitions, which present a new oriental Utopia.

This work explores the geopolitical struggles that are currently underway in the newly independent states of the Caucasus region, showing how many players in the region are coalescing into two opposing blocs. The growing political, military and economic ties amongst the countries of these two blocs stem from a number of developments in the region, most notably the fall of the Soviet Union, and consequently the end of the Cold War and its bi-polar global alliance structure. These blocs are competing for influence in the region, and the rights to exploit and transport the rich energy resources that have been found in the Caspian Sea. The text shows how many actors have been willing to co-operate in other non-energy related issues, in the hope of receiving a financial reward when countries do decide on these matters.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, Greece has shouldered a heavy burden struggling with internal political and financial insecurity as well as hosting enormous numbers of migrants and asylum seekers who arrive by land and sea. In On the Doorstep of Europe, Heath Cabot presents an ethnographic study of the asylum system in Greece, tracing the ways asylum seekers, bureaucrats, and service providers attempt to navigate the dilemmas of governance, ethics, knowledge, and social relations that emerge through this legal process. Centering on the work of an asylum advocacy NGO in Athens, Cabot explores how workers and clients grapple with predicaments endemic to Europeanization and rights-based protection. Drawing inspiration from classical Greek tragedy to highlight both the transformative potential and violence of law, Cabot charts the structural violence effected through European governance, rights frameworks, and humanitarian intervention while also exploring how Greek society is being remade from the inside out. She shows how, in contemporary Greece, relationships between insiders and outsiders are radically reconfigured through legal, political, and economic crises. Now updated with a preface reflecting on the critical stakes of the book's exploration of refuge in light of events that have transpired in and beyond Europe since its initial publication, On the Doorstep of Europe highlights how border crossers and residents in countries of arrival navigate legal and political violence. Cabot's on-the-ground account of asylum and immigration in Europe's borderlands, based on fieldwork conducted between 2004 and 2011, shows how the difficulties encountered by asylum seekers in an earlier time remain relevant and revealing in the face of ongoing crises and challenges today.