One of the great theorists of war, Panagiotis Kondylis, authored studies that were intended to serve as a point of reference and a guide for our national strategy. Of course, this presupposes the existence of a specific national strategy and that it is not left to the whims or pressures faced by each relevant (or unauthorized) minister or prime minister who shapes foreign policy based on their own short-sighted criteria (with a four-year outlook at best).
Beyond this national pathology, which Professor P. Hephaestus has examine in detail, it is obvious that our own complacency (fill in the tragic void) is more than offset by Turkey’s extreme revisionist and maximalist foreign policy, which is based precisely on finding the space to expand. A space that we left vacant with our strategy of «apathy»—and not «calm,» as it is misleadingly called for domestic consumption. As is well known, nature abhors a vacuum and weakness…
In this regard, and to preempt those who might argue that Greece’s strength stems from the agreements and alliances it has recently concluded (e.g., with France, the UAE, and the United States), P. Kondylis has already provided the answer in his work «Global Politics After the Cold War» (1992), in which he writes: «No protection and no alliance can definitively safeguard those who are in a relationship of unilateral dependence on it. The value of an alliance for a particular party is determined by that party’s specific weight within the framework of the alliance. Powerful allies are of no use to anyone who does not themselves possess significant influence, since the interest of the powerful fluctuates in proportion to that influence.’.
And to make this even clearer in his seminal work, «Theory of War» (1988 and 1997) the Greek thinker states that: «Things would be much simpler, of course, if Greece and Cyprus were not states with de facto diminished sovereign rights, that is, if their decisions did not depend either directly or indirectly on what the United States tolerates and what Turkey considers a casus belli.» He clarifies that «if, by speaking of a «defensive doctrine,» the Greek side means that, fearing exposure in the eyes of international public opinion and its allies, it intends, in any case of (general) war, to leave the initiative and the advantage of the first (massive) strike to the enemy, then it has in all likelihood signed its own death warrant in advance.» He further emphasizes that «no defense is effective unless it includes a severe punishment of the aggressor.».
I wonder if the Greek political elite has realized (even in the slightest) exactly what is at stake?;
It is true that the Turks are working to give the appearance of legitimacy to whatever they are planning to do against Greece. Most analysts conclude that, to this end, they are exploiting the issue of «demilitarization.».
Even in the current situation, however, with our neighbor openly proclaiming its revisionist agenda, targeting the very core of our national sovereignty (even inhabited islands) with its «Blue Line,» Greek politicians, hypnotized by the exercise of power and mired in their petty partisan myopia and apathy, continue to focus on when the next elections will take place. How—or whether—a «National Reconciliation» government or coalition —or however else they choose to present it—which is supposedly intended to address the impending «energy,» «food,» and «economic» crises, but primarily to set in motion—behind the scenes—the «Prespa of the Aegean.».
Of course, the strategic navel-gazers and geopolitical sleepwalkers who claim to represent the Greek people are ignoring one fundamental thing: The deep-seated sense of national identity among Greeks, who have shown great patience throughout the post-dictatorship era. An instinct that the rotten political system will come up against if it actually attempts, in one way or another, to undermine the core of our national sovereignty and/or sovereign rights…
It would therefore be wise for the political elite to listen closely to the Greek heart, as well as to the incomparable Thucydides, who said, «You do not protest to the enemy… you fight him.».
Konstantinos Apostolou-Katsaros, Special Technical Advisor. He served as a lecturer and research associate at the University of Brighton in the United Kingdom, from which he holds a Ph.D. and a master’s degree.
