Greece and the New Balkans: Challenges and Opportunities

This volume is the product of a collective effort directed by three Greek-American academics, who gather the knowledge and analytical skills of some of the finest experts on Greek-Balkan and Greek-European relations. The book is a critical overview of the Greek cultural, economic and especially political influence on its northern neighbors. Browsing through the contributions in this book, readers can find a detailed retrospective of Greece's role in the Balkans from the beginnings of the 20th century to the eve of the war in Kosovo, with several historic references going further back in time. It also summarizes and evaluates the current role of Greece in the Balkans, taking into consideration the parameters of the American foreign policy, NATO, the European Union, Russia and finally the "traditional rival", Turkey. The advantage of the book is the excellent documentation and exploration of the issue's multiple aspects. A drawback is the frequent overlapping of information between chapters, especially when discussing the Greek foreign policy in the Balkans during the 90s. Undoubtedly, the book examines the developments in the Balkans from a Greek point of view. It could be argued that the fact that the majority of its contributors are Greek results in a certain degree of similarity in their choice of primary sources and theoretical tools. Therefore they eventually reach similar conclusions.