Greece

Abstract

The anti-Western undertones in certain pronouncements by Greece’s present administration after three decades of almost uninterrupted official devotion to the United States and its European allies has attracted considerable attention and speculation abroad.¹ The outlook of the greeks vis-à-vis the Western powers has varied widely throughout the ages, from adulation to hostility, but it has never been one of indifference. We shall not attempt here to review the various issues marking the fluctuations of these attitudes; it will be sufficient to say that since the War for Greek Independence, the path of the emerging state has been strewn with foreign interventions. These interventions were not always unwelcome, and the ubiquitous Westerner, through his diplomatic, economic or military presence, became an important source of influence in the policy-making process of the Greek state. Greek political parties since the latter part of the nineteenth century have differed in their affiliations with the great powers on foreign policy issues, but have varied only marginally in their choice of westernisation and development. During the First World War a xenophobic trend of insular nationalism developed among the more backward and conservative sector of the electorate. A few decades later socialists and communists questioned or rejected the Western social and economic model altogether.