Blog

          Recently, and on the occasion of the harsh measures taken by the Greek government to fulfill its loan obligations, various perceptions have been heard from a number of politicians, unfortunately from a wide spectrum of the political space, regarding the reduction of the defense budget of the homeland, as in the past "instead of a Mirage, they should build a hospital), obviously in order to prevent the implementation of more fiscal policy measures, as demanded by our "so-called lenders", which, if nothing else, contain at least the elements of ignorance of risk and lack of information and stupid populism, so as not to assume anything more serious and nationally reprehensible.
          Let us try to refer to geopolitical issues in order to better understand the ignorance of most people in matters of the highest national importance and survival of a people, so that populism and pleasant statements constitute unacceptable and dangerous behavior of the political leaders of this long-suffering country, our homeland. Geopolitics, according to Professor I. Mazis, is the science that methodologically studies, describes and predicts the redistribution of power. Thus, states in their international behavior tend to achieve the improvement or at least the stability of their national power. In other words, all serious and responsible states are obliged to prevent the deterioration of their national position. For this purpose, the obligation and responsibility of the country's political leadership is to implement a national strategy by making all the means of the state available, such as diplomacy, the economy, military power, culture, etc.
          That is, to simply say that the highest responsibility of those in power is political action, in order to achieve a security policy and a high strategy for the nation. And when we say security policy, we mean the set of measures, political, diplomatic, psychological and especially and above all military in nature. Thus, the state will not be forced to concede the achievements of material and value-based national interests, in order to avoid war.        
 The pillars of the power of a state entity are four:
          A. Defense – Security
          B. Economy
          C. Politics
          D. Culture – Information.
          Of the above pillars of power of a state actor, the first two, Defense - Security and Economy, constitute the components of hard power, while the other two Politics and Culture-Information constitute the components of soft power. Thus, we find that in the Greek state the hard pillars of power are collapsing. However, we should point out that the pillar of the economy may be at the hard core of a state's power and of course transform the state into a protectorate and condemn its people to poverty and destitution, but the state may continue to exist. While the pillar of state power, namely defense and security, is the main, most basic and the factor that nullifies the result. That is, if the pillar of power of a nation-state is dramatically or minimally reduced, then the result can be (and will be) the dissolution of the state entity and most likely the disappearance of national identity.
          In conclusion, let us emphasize what our political leaders and the foolish braggarts, fortunately few, do not understand, that the DEFENSE - SECURITY pillar should not become the subject of populism, impressive and unacceptable statements, devaluation in any way, with excessive budget reductions, (in material and personnel) to the extent that our national Armed Forces cannot perform the highest and ultimate duty, as stated in the Greek Constitution, namely the safeguarding of our national borders. And especially today when Turkey, a modern revisionist power, has been continuously implementing in recent years, a particularly aggressive and assertive policy in all sectors to the detriment of our homeland. Historically, it has been proven that the policy of Appeasement, which Greece has unfortunately been implementing in recent years towards its neighboring country, does not necessarily lead to peace, but ultimately to war, as happened in the second half of the 1930s, when Hitler came to power in Germany and his revisionist policy was not treated as it should have been by the great powers of the time, such as Chamberlain's England. The only policy that should be applied in such cases is the policy of Containment, as all great geopoliticians teach and serious states apply. And it is not only Turkey that disputes and claims, but also insignificant military states have begun to raise unhistorical and unacceptable claims. The phobic syndromes of the homeland have no place in any case in our national issues, because sooner or later they will lead to the "Finlandization" (concession) of our national sovereign rights. Let the guards and the irrelevant and foolishly speaking politicians and others on issues of the Armed Forces of the homeland be aware of the dangers that the Greek nation will be exposed to by reducing the pillar of Defense and Security power, since our existence is at stake. Keep in mind that we can live poorer, but without a homeland how will we live? And let them stop the babble about international legal order, that we are a member of international defense alliances, economic and political unions, and therefore safe, and that we have the right and claim nothing from anyone, regardless of whether everyone else claims much from us, because history is written in other ways.
          In closing, I will mention the famous tragic passage of Thucydides, book 5, from the dialogue between the Athenians and the Melians, which explains a lot and teaches a lot, and I recommend, as a humble Greek citizen, that those in charge of governing the country (political and military leadership) read it so that they understand that geopolitics remains unchanged throughout history. 
…that justice is judged in human terms by equal necessity, but the powerful act powerfully and the weak are excused. [5.89]
  That is
...that according to human logic we can speak of justice when both parties have equal power and that the strong do whatever their power allows them and the weak retreat as much as their weakness requires them to do (and they accept it).