Europe Needs Greece

The Greek debt crisis has become so complicated that we now have digests and timelines to guide us through the saga. In this spirit, the Bertelsmann Foundation recently released an infographic depicting the Greek crisis as falling dominos. The last of the pieces which would be knocked down if Greece were to default on June 30 is painted with the Greek flag. The graphic asks: “Will the last domino stand?”

I have a simple question in response: What if the infographic is missing a few domino pieces at the end? For economy-minded Europeans, “Grexit” from the monetary union could lead to the collapse of other eurozone economies, and should therefore be contained. For politically-minded Europeans, Grexit from the EU could be the end of the dream of a united Europe in the continent, and should therefore be contained. Thus, a more accurate infographic would require additional domino pieces with the flags of a few member states in the former case, and the European Union flag in the latter.

Is it anachronistic for us to discuss political and economic contagion 61 years after Eisenhower coined the falling domino principle? On the Greek front, is the containment of the Russians, and also the Chinese, still a key priority for the transatlantic alliance to prevent other domino tiles from “going over very quickly” as Eisenhower once predicted? Is it passé to remember Truman’s doctrine of 1947, grounded in his astute observation that “The seeds of totalitarian regimes are nurtured by misery and want?” Is this Cold War lexicon really too dated to convey the nuances of our “post-affluent” Europe?

Eastern influence

It is true that the world has changed dramatically since the 1940s. The competition and conflict between old rivals, however, prevail. This time around the Chinese seem to be armed with abundant cash to snatch Greece’s main port Piraeus, and the Russians with a generous credit line to support Euroskeptic radicals, as we have seen with the €9 million loan to Marine Le Pen’s NationalFront last year. Does the transatlantic alliance possess the appropriate mindset and arsenal of countermeasures for the challenges of a new Cold War? As Cold War-era bunkers are brought back into use in Ukraine, the ongoing clashes between Kiev and Russian-backed rebels is a grim reminder of the thin line between new-age political and economic challenges and old-school military conflict.

To reconnect the political, economic, and the military lines of thinking, what we need to hear are the deliberations of the political class in the West, increasingly debilitated by parochialism and neo-isolationalism on both ends of the Atlantic, and also, on both ends of the political spectrum. Following the decline of grand narratives, all sense seems to be sucked out of the narrow econometric and technocratic analyses in the era of briefs, digests, and infographics. We know all too well the consequences of the right- and left-wing populisms and their simplistic narratives that attempt to fill the void.

It is indeed a key challenge for today’s liberal democrats to make the case for Greece to diverse publics of the European Union. Such an act of reframing the debate needs to go beyond the technocratic jargon and should first and foremost elicit an emotional response from the people. Support for, and solidarity with, Greece cannot be about audit reports, stress tests, and bottom lines. The compelling case for the ideal of a united Europe has always been — and needs to remain — one of shared values and our determination to defend it against authoritarian and illiberal challengers from within and outside.

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It is in this respect that I would like to make the case for “Grecovery,” not only in economic but more importantly in political terms. Greece does not need to be the final piece of “the falling domino principle;” but can rather be the first piece of what’s known as “the reverse domino theory.” Although such old school framing might sound neither desirable nor in vogue these days, it is as timely as can be.

We need to remind ourselves that winning Greece means keeping the idea of European enlargement alive. The prospect of (and the conditionalities associated with) European Union membership is nowhere more critical than in the western Balkans. The integration of the so-called Black Hole of Europe, no matter how excruciatingly slow or painful, will be decisive for the competitiveness and the comprehensive security of the European continent.

Another consequence of Greece’s reverse domino effect would be to help consolidate Turkey’s secular democracy and rule of law; and to keep Turkey on board as a bulwark of the transatlantic alliance against the bordering Islamist threat. Schadenfreude for, and indifference to, Greece’s sufferings could trigger an unanticipated series of events pushing all of southeast Europe into the sphere of authoritarian, illiberal, and violent forces.

Grecovery, therefore, amounts to much more than saving Greece. In light of the reverse domino theory, Grecovery is about putting the European integration project and the transatlantic alliance back on track. Greece is not an ancient legacy that can be jettisoned for austerity or convenience. It remains one of the founding stones of the prosperous and democratic future that Europe can and should build as a trans- and post-national society in the making. The birth of a new polity, society, and consciousness will, no doubt, be costly and difficult. But nowhere near as costly and difficult as rebuilding Europe and its union from the ashes of fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism.

Aykan Erdemir is a nonresident fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @aykan_erdemir