Dimitrios' World

The wider Black Sea area is in flux and at the centre of increased international interest. This momentum is due to several factors which when considered as a whole reflect an enhanced role for the region in international relations. What are these factors? --A spate of anniversaries reflecting the existence of regional cooperation in the region --The enhanced interest of the European Union linked to its emerging role as a foreign policy actor on the global arena --The region’s importance as a key transit region for energy supplies --The region’s geopolitical location and its transregional dimension --Russia’s priorities and approach --The necessity to assure that all the aforementioned factors contribute to rather than disrupt the area’s potential. Anniversaries galore The wider Black Sea area has bucked the trend toward regionalism that emerged in the Post Cold War era leading to the creation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in June 1992. A regional initiative of eleven a...

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...

Much ink is being spilled of late regarding the uncertainty around Kosovo’s future status and whether the European Union’s policy needs retinkering and rethinking. Is the worry about a unilateral Declaration of Independence by Kosovo’s Albanians and its recognition by many states without a United Nations Security Council imprimatur on a solution warranted? Does this in turn imply further violence, disarray, and a bleak forecast for the region? Or while concern regarding the future sequence of events (both planned and unplanned) in the Balkans is unavoidable, does the deadlock provide for opportunities? Does the stalemate allow for further EU cohesion? Does it help the EU in further anchoring the region within its realm and provide for a new engagement with Russia? After all, greater cohesion, the further Europeanization of the Balkans, and bitter relations with Moscow are all EU priorities. The Union’s track record in the Balkans since at least 1999 has been remarkable. Two Balkan stat...

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. Today’s posturing over missile defences, Kosovo, Iran, Iraq, and the practicalities of the CFE Treaty clearly suggest that Russia as in the past (especially the Cold War era) always wanted to be considered as an equal member in the club of global powers. Ninety years after the October Revolution, one could conclude that Russia demonstrates a marked continuity in its approach toward the rest of the world. A careful reading of history teaches us that Russia whether in its Tsarist, Soviet or Post-Cold War version remained and remains committed to the ambition of being a strong European power with a droit de regard over its neighbourhood, its “near abroad”. One of the reasons for the Communist Revolution of 1917 was that Tsarist Russia was considered to be the weak link in the Concert of Europe that had, in effect, ruled Europe with its Balance of Power concept since the end of the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, apart from creating a worker’...

The last four days I along with over 10 million Greeks have been living a surreal nightmare. Brushfires helped along by arsonists have been raging all over the country and at the time I am writing these words over 60 of my fellow citizens have lost their lives and unfortunately the body count is bound to grow. I am beset by a feeling of helplessness sitting in my living room watching live coverage of the over 170 fires across the land, while my parents are stuck in Euboea, not necessarily under threat at this time but cut off from land access to Athens for the better part of 48 hours as the fires in Aliveri and Amarinthos raged on. While I could talk to my parents on the phone, I had no physical access to them. When at some stage I could reach them, we decided that I stay in Athens to keep a watchful eye over our properties in the capital. Low and behold, a huge fire broke out in Athens and soon the streets and our homes were filled with ashes like snowflakes in August. I did cry a lot...

The Mediterranean region has always been in the spotlight for some reason or other. The most striking reason is an almost daily reference in the press to developments in the Middle East, President Moammar Qadaffi of Libya occasionally finds himself at centre stage for his peculiar remarks on the state of the world, while Egypt is still seen as a regional power whose authority is being challenged in a variety of ways. Like other regions, the Mediterranean was also severely tested by the consequences of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, both in terms of their impact on the Arab world and through their association with militant Islam and in relation to the rise of neoconservative interventionism aspiring to remake the Greater Middle East which led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Closer to home, the sum total of the aforementioned trends and developments has also had an impact on how the states of Europe, especially through the cumulative expression of th...