Between a rock and a hard place: small states, vulnerabilities and Greek foreign policy

Recent scholarship has sought to bridge the gap between small states’ security and financial vulnerabilities. Two key works by Tom Long and former Armenian president Armen Sarkissian highlight this effort. Long explains how small states can navigate asymmetries with greater powers by adopting context-specific strategies, while Sarkissian’s practitioner-focused analysis examines nine case studies, stressing the perplexities of navigating both economic and security vulnerabilities. This paper critiques Long’s framework, arguing that it overlooks critical real-world complexities small states face when balancing security and financial pressures. Using Greece’s early 21st-century economic crisis as a case study, it demonstrates how financial instability affected Greece’s foreign relations, particularly with China and Turkey. Greece was chosen because Long used its negotiations during the Eurozone crisis as a case study. Sarkissian’s perspective underscores the interconnected nature of crises in small states, showing that challenges in one domain—economic or security—inevitably affect the other. The analysis calls for a more comprehensive approach incorporating theoretical insights and practical realities in understanding small-state behaviour.