The UNESCO Chair of the Ionian University, GEOLab of the Department of Foreign Languages Translation and Interpreting and the Library and Information Center of the Ionian University organized on Wednesday 3-5-23 at the Central Library of the Ionian University (72 Ioannou Theotokis Str.) at 19.00 the presentation of the book by Alex Papadopoulos and Triantafyllos Petridis
Hellenic Statecraft and the Geopolitics of Difference, London 2021
The presentation was made by one of the authors, De Paul Univeristy professor Mr. Alex Papadopoulos, who is this semester at the Ionian University as a Fulbright scholar. The holder of the UNESCO Chair of the Ionian University and director of GEOLab, Professor Stavros Katsios, gave a foreword. Discussion followed the presentation.
The book examines different definitions of Hellenism during the creation of the Greek state. The authors critically examine historical and geopolitical perspectives as they relate to diversity and exclusion.
Among other things, the central role of Greece in the state system, regional security and the nationalisms of the Balkans, the Black Sea and Eastern Europe are investigated. Also, by studying the social constitution of the Greek state, the book contributes to the understanding of both past and present plans and strategies at the local, national and European level as well as the corresponding concepts of security and identity. It also explores the relationship between subaltern communities and state power as well as the state's ability or willingness to discuss and accept different identities. Finally, it studies how state identity politics shaped regional geopolitics in the last two centuries.
The chapters of the book shed light on specific cases such as the Hellenization of the Jewish Thessaloniki, the creation by the Treaty of Lausanne of the Muslim community of western Thrace, the role played by population settlements, ecstaticism, the drawing of state borders (bordering-as- statecraft) in eastern Macedonia and western Thrace and the political processes that preceded the construction of the Muslim mosque in Athens, which is the first, paid for by the Greek state, outside of western Thrace a mosque that operates with a state permit.
