Great Power Spheres-of-Influence in the Balkans: 1944 and After

1983 ◽  
pp. 51-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Carlton
Keyword(s):  
Great Power ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Spheres Of Influence

Explaining Peaceful Change in Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Tabachnik ◽  
Benjamin Miller
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
The State ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
Two Independent Variables

This chapter explains the process of peaceful change in Central and Eastern Europe following the demise of the Soviet system. It also explains the failure of peaceful change in the Balkans and some post-Soviet countries, such as the Ukrainian conflict in 2014. The chapter accounts for the conditions for peaceful change and for the variation between peaceful and violent change by the state-to-nation theory. The two independent variables suggested by the theory are the level of state capacity and congruence—namely the compatibility between state borders and the national identities of the countries at stake. Moreover, according to the theory, great-power engagement serves as an intervening variable and in some conditions, as explained in the chapter, may help with peaceful change.

The Process of Westernization of the Balkans after WWII: The Cases of Greece and Bulgaria

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Alla Kondrasheva ◽  
Stavris Parastatov
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Short Interval ◽  
Western Country ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Of Greece

The high significance of the Balkan geopolitical knot was clearly expressed in the bipolar era when the main frontier between the two warring blocks passed through the Balkans. Due to the secret ‘Percentages Agreement’ between Great Britain and the USSR in 1944, the Balkans were divided into spheres of influence of the two great powers. Subsequently, London ceded the role of the main source of Western influence in the region to Washington.Of particular interest are the cases of Greece and Bulgaria as border countries that found themselves in different ‘worlds’ and, given the geostrategic importance of their territories, which were the main ideological instruments and conductors of ideas in the Cold war of the hegemons that stood behind. The Truman Doctrine in 1947 and NATO membership in 1952 strengthened and institutionalized Western influence in Greece. Westernization of Greek society in the form of liberalization and democratiza-tion of social relations and consequently its political system proceeded rapidly with a relatively short interval of the military dictatorship.Greece was assigned the role of a model for the rapid and successful develop-ment of a western country, a bridgehead for the dissemination of anti–communist ide-as in other countries of the Balkan region, primarily Bulgaria. Besides, due to the establishment of a strict pro–Soviet regime in Sofia, the westernization of Bulgarian society was carried out including through intelligence agencies, and after a certain thaw in relations through economic cooperation.

Jesuits in the Orthodox World

2018 ◽  
pp. 317-348
Author(s):  
Paul Shore
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Great Power Politics

Interactions between Jesuits and Orthodox believers have been characterized both by meaningful encounters and by conflict and misunderstanding. The gaps between urban, transnational, and book-oriented Jesuit culture and the traditional, rural, and preliterate cultures of many Orthodox populations were underscored by different theological ideas and by great power politics. Ethnic rivalries and a historic suspicion of Catholicism among some Orthodox also contributed to tensions. Jesuits nonetheless worked over a wide portion of Russia, the Balkans, and other locations in Eastern Europe, although their success in converting Orthodox was always very modest. The Soviet era brought severe persecution to Jesuits. Since 1991, the Society has returned to the region, but with a focus now based on education, compassion, outreach, and social justice rather than on proselytizing.

Orthodoxy and Bulgarian Ethnic Awareness Under Ottoman Rule, 1396-1762 Orthodoxy and Bulgarian Ethnic Awareness Under Ottoman Rule

1993 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Dennis P. Hupchick
Keyword(s):  
Balkan Peninsula ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Great Power Politics

By the year 1453, when the vestigial remains of the Byzantine Empire were destroyed with the fall of Constantinople, much of the Balkan peninsula was already in the hands of the conquering Ottoman Turks. The overthrow of Byzantium in that year was the capstone in a century-long process that transformed an originally militant Muslim Anatolian border emirate into a powerful Muslim empire that straddled two continents and represented a major contender in contemporary European great power politics. Over half of the population subject to the Ottoman sultan were Christian European inhabitants of the Balkans: Greeks, Serbs, Vlahs, Albanians and Bulgarians. With the conquest of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II Fatih, the victorious Turkish ruler, faced the quarrelsome problem of devising a secure means of governing his vast, Muslim-led empire that contained a highly heterogeneous non-Muslim population.

Sarajevo, February 1994: the first Russia-NATO crisis of the post-Cold War era

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Headley
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Market Place ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West

This article analyses the Russian reaction to the Sarajevo crisis of February 1994 when NATO threatened air strikes in response to the market-place mortar explosion. I argue that Russia's shift to a realist great-power policy led to a crisis with the West as Russia sought to demonstrate its great power credentials, protect what it saw as specific Russian interests in the Balkans, and limit the role of NATO in conflict resolution, while Western leaders aimed to demonstrate NATO credibility and its new post-Cold War role as peace-keeper/peace-maker. This was the first major East-West crisis since the end of the Cold War, and Russian responses and actions foreshadowed its reactions to the Kosovo crisis.

The U.S.-China Peace: Great Power Politics, Spheres of Influence, and the Peace of East Asia

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert S. Ross
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Cold War ◽  
East Asia ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
The World ◽  
Great Power Politics ◽  
The U.S

East Asia in the post–Cold War era has been the world's most peaceful region. Whereas since 1989 there have been major wars in Europe, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and significant and costly civil instability in Latin America, during this same period in East Asia there have been no wars and minimal domestic turbulence. Moreover, economic growth in East Asia has been faster than in any other region in the world. East Asia seems to be the major beneficiary of pax Americana.

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