Greece and the European Project: Canary in the Coal Mine?

A compounding of issues such as aging populations, immigration, and a recession-triggered deterioration of the social contract has burst open the Overton Window in Greek politics—a premonition for the rest of the EU, according to Former Ambassador Speckhard. Rather than attributing Greece’s economic failures to some Huntington-esque cultural grounding, it is necessary to view the collapse as a culmination of socio-material factors that are present in most welfare states. In that the processes of globalization have connected people and states in novel, intimate ways, the US and EU must prioritize stability for others as well as themselves.