Editorial: Geopolitical shifts

One might at this geopolitical juncture be tempted to adopt a Manichaeistic conception of a clash between the “good guys” and the “bad guys”.

The former would include US President Joe Biden, who is traveling to Israel today and then to Saudi Arabia to discuss, inter alia, Iran’s nuclear programme.

The latter would include Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will meet next Tuesday in Tehran to discuss Syria, to exchange views on Ukraine, and to examine ways to handle sanctions that have for various reasons been imposed upon their countries.

Such a manichaeistic dichotomy (a variation of the formulation “either you are with us or against us” that led to the disastrous war in Iraq), however, would be an over-simplification (you wouldn’t call the leader of Saudi Arabia who was implicated in butchering a journalist at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul good).

Moreover, it does not help us understand the enormous changes that are occurring all around us.

We no longer live in a bipolar world. There are constant geopolitical shifts and it is not at all clear that democracies have the upper hand.

In this fluid political terrain, it is important for Greece to maintain clear judgment and calm and make strategic choices.

We must monitor change without compromising our values and principles.

Turkish provocations must be answered without over-stressing moves designed for domestic consumption.

By all appearances, the solutions to the energy crisis that Europe is experiencing will be arrived at in a collective and coordinated fashion.