Belonging to the West: Geopolitical Myths and Identity in Modern Greece

Antonios Nestoras, Ph.D. (1983), is an Adjunct Professor at the Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He also acts as Deputy Executive Director of the European Liberal Forum (ELF), Editor of ELF's Technopolitics Series, Chief Editor of the Future Europe journal, and a curator of the podcast Liberal Reads.

• List of Maps and Tables1 Introduction1 Explanations Based on Interests and Identity2 The Constitutive Role of Political Myth and Geography3 Political Myth and Geopolitical Analysis2 A Short History of Geopolitics1 From Classical to Critical Geopolitics1.1 Classical Geopolitics, Rise and Demise1.2 Geopolitics’ Revival and Critique1.3 Postmodern, Critical Geopolitics1.4 Textual Deconstruction in Critical Geopolitics1.5 The Critique of Critical Geopolitics2 From Critical to Analytical Geopolitics2.1 Myth and Political Myth2.2 Political Myth, ir, and Geopolitics2.3 Toward an Analytical Geopolitics3 A Structural-Historical Method of Analysis3.1 Geopolitical Myths as Structural Objects3.2 Types and Form of Geopolitical Myths3.3 The Functions of Geopolitical Myths3 Geopolitical Mythmaking in Modern Greece1 Excursus: Locating “Greece” in Space and Time2 Imitating the West and the Greek Enlightenment2.1 The Great Idea as a Foundational Geopolitical Myth2.2 Modern Times, Modern Space: Enlightenment, Science, and Geography2.3 Centrality, Continuity, and Affinity in Greek Political Geography2.4 Interim Conclusion: The Diffusion of Belonging3 Opposing the West and Greek Romanticism3.1 Absolutism, Religion, and the Russian Expectation3.2 Romantic Historiography and the Byzantine Revival3.3 Western Dependence and the Limits of Opposition3.4 Interim Conclusion: Opposition and Adaptation of Belonging4 Belonging to the West and European Integration4.1 Western Dependence from the Turn of the Century to World War II4.2 Belonging to the West from the Civil War to European Integration4.3 Europeanization, Modernization, and the Geopolitics of the Euro Crisis4.4 Interim Conclusion: Ritualization and Sacralization of Belonging4 Conclusions1 Belonging to the West as a Geopolitical Myth2 The Making of an Efficient Geopolitical Myth3 Analytical Geopolitics: A Research AgendaReferencesIndex