Greece’s Foreign Policy Paradox

Abstract

In the same manner that we have considered the process of the Europeanization of Greece through the lens of the Greek paradox, we must now review the process of the making of Greek foreign policy. What is the Greek foreign policy paradox? Again, it is the disparity between promise and performance in the area of foreign policy. After all, for a long time Greece was the only country with no land borders to the EU in a neighborhood partially ravaged by the omnipotence of communism and partly coming of age in the post-cold war era. Having witnessed brutal wars and genocides throughout the twentieth century and with instability still looming in the neighboring Balkan countries, Greece became a litmus test for the success and failure of overall European Foreign Policy, not to mention of the European project as a whole. Even without considering the overall question of success and failure of European foreign policy, it makes sense to argue that an increasingly Europeanized Greece may be the element of stability in the turbulent Balkan peninsula and provide a roadmap for the newer member states with whom she has cordial relations. Nonetheless, opinions on Greece’s foreign policy within Europe have been divided among those who think that after a prolonged stage of initiation Greek foreign policy has become fully Europeanized and those who believe that it has not (Stavridis 2003, Tsardanidis and Stavridis, 2005).