Dimitrios' World

One of the major symptoms of Greek foreign policy is its chronic inability to be a protagonist beyond its immediate neighbourhoods, i.e. the Balkans, Turkey , and the Mediterranean – in spite of its extensive conscious involvement in the first two regions since the end of the Cold War. Successive Greek governments have used analogous rhetoric and set similar objectives – the need to ‘ Europeanise ’ Greece’s northern and eastern neighbours, the need to see them integrated into the European Union, the need for the wider neighbourhood to become ‘normal’, ‘boring’, ‘regular’. The diplomatic and political energy spent on assuring that the aforementioned comes to pass has been both inexhaustible and exhausting yet results (i.e. change in the desired direction) have been slow almost at snail’s pace. In part, this is due to the inability/unwillingness of the neighbours to completely transform themselves; in part it is due to the inability of the Greek foreign policy machinery to convince n...

In a recent European Commission on the Implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) in 2008, it is stated that the ENP is “a growing partnership based on mutual interdependence.” This is evermore necessary since 2008 has been a year of crises that have led to gridlock both in the South and the East. The August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia , the Israeli intervention in Gaza in December 2008/January 2009 and the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis of January 2009 coupled with the growing negative impact on growth, trade, and investment of the global financial and economic crisis are all indicative on the frailty of the EU’s neighbourhoods.    On 7 May 2009, the Prague Eastern Partnership Summit took place amidst great expectations from its promoters in an effort to further solidify/strengthen the bonds between the European Union and its member states and their Eastern European Partners (herein...

The international order has entered into a new era. Barack Obama has taken formally the reigns of power in Washington , the dismantling of a number of Bush-era policies has begun and the expectations of hope across the globe take hold. Amidst an ongoing, evergrowing international financial and economic crisis (where estimates of negative growth globally for the first time since 1950 abound), and the realities of the aftermath of the killing fields of Gaza , Obama’s agenda is filled to the brim and bound to overflow. The Black Sea region – a region encompassing the South Caucasus, Russia, Turkey , Ukraine and some of the European Union’s member states – will undoubtedly constitute a high priority region, not in the least due to the presence of Russia . The issues at hand are many, they are complex and they are challenging. They could augur instability as well as the potential for constructive, long-standing cooperation and stability. For one, an interesting challenge has to do with t...

Much discussion is underway these days regarding the best way the European Union can approach its eastern neighbours. As a result, and probably to be expected, much confusion abounds as EU member states are divided on how best to address the region. Undoubtedly, Russia is its dual capacity as one of the Union’s most important partners and new neighbour is at the core of the debate given the on-off nature of EU-Russia talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement which has taken a turn for the worse after the Georgian-Russian conflict of August. Do the EU and Russia share the same objectives in managing their common neighbourhood or does the prospect of EU membership, however distant if at all possible it might be at this time, for some of the common neighbours put the two sides on a collision course? Perceptions are important here – the inability of some EU member states to overcome their genuine fears of Russia and therefore insist on EU and NATO membership for those outside ho...