Spyridon N. Litsas – författare

This book examines the continuities and substantial transformations in Greek foreign policy before the beginning and during the unfolding of the economic crisis.

The wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean is in transition. What is being evinced is a situation of continuous volatility, centering on developments such as the ’Arab Spring,’ the Greek sovereign debt crisis, Islamic terrorism, the continuation of deadlock over the Cypriot and Palestinian Issues, significant energy finds in the Levantine Basin, concerns over nuclear proliferation and, more recently, the Syrian Civil War. At a systemic level, the move towards a regional multipolar reality has also contributed to volatility by creating a crescendo of antagonisms between all the major international actors who continuously strive for more influence, power and prestige. This collective project by leading experts represents a unique combination of International Theory and International Politics analysis that deals exclusively with the wider Eastern Mediterranean. It scrutinizes in a multidimensional manner the current geostrategic and geopolitical conditions that include the latest domestic socio-political events, as well as the active involvement of the Great Powers in the region. This book should be of interest to academics, decision-makers and a general reading public focusing on a significant and influential region in flux.

This book examines the present crisis of Greece’s political economy as a crisis of stateness, tackling the domestic as well as the international dimensions. It represents the first attempt by Greek academics to put forward a theoretically-informed, interdisciplinary analysis of Greece’s fiscal, economic, and political crisis. The approach aims to fill a major gap, combining insights from comparative politics, political economy, international relations theory, and legal-institutional analysis, in a theoretically informed account of the Greek case in comparative and theoretical perspective. The book tackles the issue of the possible next steps for the EU under the influence of the crisis of the eurozone, including a thorough analysis of national sovereignty seen from a domestic and an international point of view, focusing on critical processes in the international arena such as interdependency and dependency, while a legal-institutional chapter demonstrates the erratic way in which Greek government dealt with sovereign debt.The project comes at the right time in order to address a highly contentious chapter in the political development of the Greek state and of the European South. As the crisis in the eurozone’s weaker periphery unfolds, Lavdas, Litsas, and Skiadas use the Greek crisis in order to address a much larger and critical issue: the role and predicament of stateness in the developing EU.

This volume provides an introduction to the Eastern Mediterranean region and introduces the concept of the Eastern Mediterranean as a new regional subsystem.

This book examines US foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean and the region’s key role in the practice and evolution of American exceptionalism.

This book examines US foreign policy in the Eastern Mediterranean and the region’s key role in the practice and evolution of American exceptionalism.

Small States theory supports the argument that small international actors have a vital role in the international system. This book argues that Small States Theory is not relevant to the perplexities of the post-multipolar international system and produces a new theory, the Smart States Theory.

Small States theory supports the argument that small international actors have a vital role in the international system. This book argues that Small States Theory is not relevant to the perplexities of the post-multipolar international system and produces a new theory, the Smart States Theory.

Die Theorie der kleinen Staaten unterstützt die Argumentation, dass kleine internationale Akteure eine wichtige Rolle im internationalen System spielen. Nach dem 11. September entwickelte sie sich zu einem gezielteren Versuch, zu zeigen, dass „klein“ in einer Ära normativer politischer und religiöser Radikalisierung „attraktiv und funktional“ sein kann.Dieses Buch argumentiert, dass die Theorie der kleinen Staaten für die Komplexitäten des post-multipolaren internationalen Systems nicht mehr relevant ist und entwickelt eine neue Theorie: die Theorie der klugen Staaten (Smart States Theory). Basierend auf strukturellem und neoklassischem Realismus versucht sie, die Ursprünge von „Staatsklugheit“ in der Außenpolitik, Führung und Innenpolitik zu identifizieren. Die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate werden als Fallstudie für diesen neuartigen theoretischen Ansatz verwendet. Die beeindruckende Entwicklung der Vertragsstaaten (Trucial States) zu einem modernen Nationalstaat mit Hochtechnologie, dynamischer Außenpolitik – wie die jüngste Pandemie deutlich gezeigt hat –, einzigartiger Führung und beispielloser Toleranz gegenüber anderen Religionen und Kulturen macht die VAE zu einem brillanten Beispiel für einen klugen Staat des 21. Jahrhunderts. Die Leserinnen und Leser des Buches werden in eine neue Theorie der internationalen Beziehungen eingeführt sowie in die Geschichte, Politik, Gesellschaft und Führung eines Staates, der nicht nur in der Golfregion, sondern auch im weiteren Rahmen des Nahen Ostens eine zentrale Rolle spielt: die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate.