The Geographical and Systemic Influences on Greek Foreign Policy in the Balkans in the 1990s

The aim of this article is to structurally and operationally link geography to foreign policy. Greek foreign policy will be used as a case study in order to define reasons for policy differentiation between Greece and its EC/EU partners. The analysis builds up-on a state-centric assumption of state behaviour according to which a state's foreign policy is determined by geography, culture, threat [mis]perceptions, domestic politics as well as its systemic features such as structure, interactions amongst players, the input and out-put ratio of the local subordinate system as well as its self-stabilizing potential. The analysis is formulated on the assumption that foreign policy choices are dependent on cultural elements, and that foreign policy cannot be formulated in a vacuum of domestic interests. To support the view that geography and system structure define state behaviour and affect international outcomes, the paper uses the two-security zone typology of M.Singer and A. Wildavsky that operationally and structurally differentiates Greece's environment from that of its EC/EU partners. The emergence of the post-Cold War Balkan subordinate system and its characteristics will provide a causational approach to the adoption of self-help policies that may distance the country from its European partners. To look into the causes of this trend in Greek foreign policy in the 1990's, its policy adjustment margins in a zone of turmoil will be compared to the Western European zone of peace and within Greece's systemic operational framework (Balkan subordinate system)