The value of “security contracts”

For decades, Greece has searched the global “insurance market” for a protection policy against Turkey. The commentary sees that search as evidence of a dependency syndrome in a country once moved by the slogan “Greece belongs to the Greeks.”

The main policy was built around the United States. Greece bought American military equipment and sought military facilities and bases, expecting Washington to stand ready when tensions with Turkey became dangerous. The United States did intervene at critical moments, the article says, but it consistently kept its distance from both sides and acted as a firefighter in a sensitive corner of the Western alliance.

Those partial assurances have now faded. The article questions what the Western alliance actually is, who would answer the phone in the White House and what that person would say. Greece should buy support from everywhere, it argues, but remember that no one in its neighborhood or elsewhere fights another country’s war.

France has also supplied a security “contract,” dating back to the era of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. It is usually expensive because it comes with major arms orders, as well as verbal commitments and strategic gestures such as Emmanuel Macron’s presence, alongside warships, in Cyprus. Yet the French arrangement has never been tested in practice and lacks the potential strength of the American one. Its main political figure, the commentary adds, will soon be a retired politician.

The article also discusses growing interest in an Israeli “contract.” That could matter if it produced concrete support for Greece during a crisis. It is not cheap, but it offers cooperation and training for Greek services and armed forces in a different model of organization and operation. The warning remains the same: Greece must preserve its relationships and seek support broadly, but if it is not strong enough on its own, foreign protection policies have little value. Their worth becomes clear only when a crisis forces a country to cash them in.