Greece and the New Balkans: Themes and Histories

The Oxford academic and foreign correspondent James Pettifer has been an international authority on and historian of modern Greece and its Balkan neighbours for over thirty years. At the same time, he has been an eye-witness to many of the events that led to the ex-Yugoslav Wars. This book, bringing together some of his most important papers and reports, explores the evolution of the Macedonian crisis, the chaos and anarchy in Albania linked to the war in Kosovo, and the recent debt crisis in Greece. It also analyses the region's turbulent history with seminal papers on historiography and the evolution of British foreign policy towards Greece and the wider region in the twentieth century, the nature of Montenegrin identity at the time of independence, and the changing role of Albania in the Balkans. The key paper on the emergence of the New Macedonian Question, which has set the parameters for all later analysis, is also included in this collection The end of the Cold War after 1990 was expected to herald an era of stability and liberal democratic development, but in reality the Southern Balkans have experienced intermittent crises during these years, from the implosion of impoverished Albania and the gradual collapse of Yugoslavia into fragmentation and violent conflict, to the chain of events in Greece that led to the post-2010 financial crisis and the ensuing imposition of international control over the economy. These issues have emerged against the background of deteriorating relations with Turkey and an alarming climate of militarization and instability throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. This collection, which includes material hitherto difficult to access, will be an essential tool for all students of the history, international relations and contemporary politics of an increasingly critical region on the interface of Europe and the Middle East.