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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.

Greece faces an immense, perhaps unique and increasingly urgent challenge. It needs to reform in depth, reconciling emergency measures with long lasting reforms. In the face of growing social and political discontent, the future crucially depends on the government's ability to link short term austerity measures with a long term vision and structural reforms aimed at restoring growth and improving the population's welfare. These reforms depend on a well functioning public administration. Strong measures, starting now, to improve the effectiveness, accountability and integrity of the public administration so that it is \"fit for purpose\" are a priority. The success of reforms such as privatisation, fiscal consolidation, debt reduction, tax collection and enhanced competitiveness is at stake.This report analyses the issues, sets out the evidence, and makes recommendations for moving forward rapidly to strengthen Greek public governance.

The world’s eyes are on Greece. Elected in January 2015 under the leadership of Alexis Tsipras, the radical Syriza party sought to challenge the European economic status-quo and secure a better future for the Greek people. The fierce confrontation with Greece’s creditors which followed reverberated around the world. Kevin Ovenden tells the turbulent story of Syriza’s first six months in office. Despite the party's many defeats over the last few months, the rise (and possible fall) of Syriza is a symbolic and important story to tell. The twists and turns of the bailout negotiations with the Troika; the brief reign of iconoclastic Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis; and the surge of radical, popular support all converge to create a pivotal moment in Europe's recent history. Based on firsthand reporting by an experienced journalist, this book is the perfect read for anyone looking to go behind the headlines and uncover the real situation in Greece.

This collective volume – with contributions from experts on these regions – examines broader questions about the current crises (the Great Recession and the Commodity Crisis) and the associated changes in political representation in both regions. It provides a general overview of political representation studies in Southern Europe and Latin America and builds bridges between the two traditions of political representation studies, affording greater understanding of developments in each region and promoting future research collaboration between Southern Europe and Latin America. Finally, the book addresses questions of continuity and change in patterns of political representation after the onset of the two economic crises, specifically examining such issues as changes in citizens’ democratic support and trust in political representatives and institutions, in-descriptive representation (in the socio-demographic profile of MPs) and in-substantive representation (in the link between voters and MPs in terms of ideological congruence and/or policy/issue orientations). This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political elites, political representation, European and Latin American politics/studies, and more broadly to comparative politics.

The nation states in the Black Sea area have initiated many co-operative policies but the area also sees numerous tensions between neighboring states. The conflict-co-operation paradox, along with ethnic fragmentation and shared culture, are two of the most salient features of the Black Sea Area. These paradoxes are not the only force in the evolution of the region though. There are also issues such as ethnic and national identity, the failure of democratization, energy and resources, as well as the influence of other powers such as Russia, the EU and the USA. The key questions asked by the authors in this book are: to what extent is there an emerging regionalism in the Black Sea area? Is the Black Sea a region? What are the common interests shared by the former USSR states, the three EU member states neighboring the Black Sea - Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, and a NATO country - Turkey? Are the fault-lines dividing them more pervasive than the incentives for cooperation? Can we speak of a shared identity? The first part of the book places the Black Sea problematique in a wider historical and spatial context. The authors then take a closer look at the region and examine further the structure of the Black Sea area. They offer a perspective on smaller actors with great ambitions, such as Azerbaijan and Romania, and go on to make a comparison between the emerging regionalism in the Black Sea area and regionalisms in other parts of the world.

The construction of a positive international image is profoundly correlated with advancing one’s national interests abroad. Influencing foreign audiences and creating multisided links with countries of interest, is the main objective of public diplomacy. In the highly interconnected XXI century, countries have increasingly invested in that practice, assisted by major technological advancements. China is not an exception. The current paper will examine in which ways the latter conducts public diplomacy and through which actors. The study will also try to showcase the evolution and challenges that took place in this domain. Afterward, the case study of Greece will be considered, presenting the Chinese actors engaging in the country, the practices they use, and how the bilateral relationship has been affected. The essay will conclude with estimating the total effectiveness of the practices, possible challenges that exist, and several insights for future reference.

This book concentrates on the parallel evolution of debt crisis and digital communications in Greece. By examining four different online and social media platforms, it uncovers the impact of digital media on the contentious politics of crisis, as well as the impact of the political economic sphere on the formation of the Greek digital mediascape.

About the Authors: Anastasia Chasapi Affiliation: Biological Computation & Process Lab, Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessalonica, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1986-5007 Michalis Aivaliotis Affiliations School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece, Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Greece Lefteris Angelis Affiliation: School of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece Anastasios Chanalaris Affiliation: Botnar Research Centre, NDORMS, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8884-6750 Ioannis Iliopoulos Affiliation: Division of Basic Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9079-0565 Ilias Kappas Affiliation: School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8564-7035 Christos Karapiperis Affiliation: School of Informatics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece Nikos C. Kyrpides Affiliation: Department of Energy, Joint Genome Institute, Walnut Creek, California, United States of America ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6131-0462 Evangelos Pafilis Affiliation: Institute of Marine Biology Biotechnology and Aquaculture, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Heraklion, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5079-0125 Eleftherios Panteris Affiliation: First Psychiatric Clinic, Papageorgiou General Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece Pantelis Topalis Affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Greece George Tsiamis Affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5616-8505 Ioannis S. Vizirianakis Affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessalonica, Greece Metaxia Vlassi Affiliation: Institute of Biosciences & Applications, National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, Athens, Greece Vasilis J. Promponas * E-mail: vprobon@ucy.ac.cy (VJP); ouzounis@certh.gr (CAO) Affiliation: Bioinformatics Research Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3352-4831 Christos A. Ouzounis * E-mail: vprobon@ucy.ac.cy (VJP); ouzounis@certh.gr (CAO) Affiliation: Biological Computation & Process Lab, Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas, Thessalonica, Greece ORCID logo http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0086-8657 Introduction In the mid-1980s, a generation of prominent biologists inspired some of their students to follow an interdisciplinary career in the life sciences. [...]we issue a number of recommendations relevant for the 2 countries, taking into account the rich biodiversity and their particular geographical and geopolitical context, with the hope that policies can be formulated with more precision and insight for future development of bioinformatics in this southeastern, strategically located corner of Europe. [...]it is not feasible and certainly beyond the scope of this article to provide a detailed record of the activities that have contributed to a successful computational biology community in Greece and Cyprus; for this, we apologize and hope that additional efforts might be reported in the pertinent literature in the future. [...]the few graduate programs in biological computing of that era were oriented towards theoretical ecology or plant genetics and—less so—to molecular biology.

This article addresses the Chinese debates on utopian and dystopian modes of democracy. It opens the black box of the one-party state and delves below the surface of the People's Republic of China's official statements on “democracy” (e.g., “people's democracy,” “democratic centralism”) by focusing on the often-overlooked “democracy” contemplations within the highly fragmented Chinese academic communities. These reflections indirectly respond to the debates and governance practices in other world regions—with the US being referred to as the main “mirror” image. The article mainly focuses on the first two office terms of Xi Jinping. Developments since this re-appointment as head of the Chinese party-state in 2022 (and 2023), however, indicate that the “democracy” frame continues to serve as core element of the Chinese role-identity narratives.

Europeanness is challenged by the multiple crises and debates happening across the continent. There is long-standing disagreement over Europe's boundaries, and politicians and citizens continually reflect on the EU's past, present and future. This book analyses such reflections and political struggles in a variety of national and local contexts.