Semiperipheral Development and Foreign Policy: The Cases of Greece and Spain

OpenAlex English

Foreign policy analysis stands at the crossroads of different issues and academic disciplines, including political economy and international relations. In this study, the foreign policies of Greece and Spain are analysed in the period between 1945 and the early 1990s, in the context of the world-system approach in which foreign policy is considered a part of the interaction between a single world-economy and multiple political structures (nation states). In other words, this is a study of the political economy of foreign policy. The foreign policies of Greece and Spain are analysed in the context of the world and national levels of the organisation of power and production. In this general context, the two countries are defined as the interesting but debatable category of semiperiphery states in the world-system hierarchy of states. The analysis of Greece and Spain shows that the foreign policies of both countries were strongly affected by their semiperipheral development patterns during both the "expansion-hegemonic rise" and "contraction-hegemonic decline" periods of the world-economy. The study examines the relative impact of national and international structural factors, the distribution of wealth and power, the state, external and internal economic and power elites on the foreign policies of Greece and Spain. The examination demonstrates the effect of their semiperipheral status on their foreign policy. The main theoretical contention of the study is that the world-system analysis and the concept of "semiperiphery" provide a useful framework for the study of the political economy of the foreign policies of middle income countries.