ABSTRACT
Greece is a small country of ten million inhabitants strategically located in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea-a position which has made it the proverbial crossroad of civilization as well as of invading forces. In modern times Greece’s involvement in international conflagrations has been considerable and the cost that this has entailed has been disproportionate to Greece’s size and resources. Shattered by two world wars and civil strife, the country recovered economically but was faced with difficulties in reestablishing the basis of its parliamentary politics. A maverick among NATO allies since 1981, Greece is still attempting to recover a lost consensus in a society marked by past political cleavages.
