Dimitrios' World

The NATO Summit of 2-4 April in Bucharest was in itself extraordinary in that it seemed to confirm the coming of age of Europe. In Bucharest, several European member states of NATO were able, bluntly and overtly, to obtain unanimous decisions which did not necessarily reflect the aspirations of the United States. Buoyed by the clear positions of Germany and France among others stating their opposition to granting MAP to Georgia and Ukraine, Greece was able to insist that the former Yugoslav Republic of Yugoslavia (FYROM) was not yet meriting of NATO membership as it had been acting in bad faith by not actively engaging in resolving the name issue within the framework of the UN. As a result, FYROM was seen to be faltering in the promotion of good-neighbourly relations with its neighbour and NATO member, Greece and its invitation to join NATO was put on hold pending resolution of the name issue. Greece was certainly aided by the coming out of “Old Europe” to lucidly declare its oppositio...

Sitting in Athens, one’s perspective, regarding developments in Greece’s wider neighbourhood, is obviously different from that of many other allied capitals. Here one has the impression, as it is cultivated by the mass media especially in its electronic form and many of the country’s elite, that uncontrollable, irreversible processes have taken hold and that the world as we know it is steadily being reshaped and recalibrated. An unusually high and troubling recent rate of seismic activity does certainly not help alleviate a general feeling of malaise. What seems to be troubling public opinion? Kosovo has unilaterally declared independence with the blessing of most great and not so great powers of the West, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) wants to become a NATO member preferably without compromising in its name dispute with Greece, Turkey is simultaneously beset by two existentialist crises – the head scarf issue and the Kurdish conundrum, and Cyprus has a new Presiden...