The Greek crisis as an asymmetric peripheral shock of the global political economy

The paper aims at investigating the extent to which the Greek crisis should also be seen in the context of the global political economy, rather than from the point of view of a pure national or European perspective and framework alone. Although the latter cannot be neglected, nevertheless global political and economic trends should also be taken into consideration. In this regard, we can identify many important causes that negatively affect the European economies and, consequently, the Greek one. First, the neoliberal paradigm, the so-called Washington Consensus, seems not to be anymore viable and sustainable. Second, the United States have lost their hegemonic position mainly because of their economic problems, which are closely related to the rise of China and other developing countries. Consequently, one could argue that a new world order is emerging as the “unipolar” world is transformed to a “multipolar world”. I argue that this is altering power governance structures creating asymmetric peripheral shocks, the Greek crisis being included among those. We may face one of the first indications of a Global Economic War which could result to a great transformation that will soon happen mainly in terms of global governance structures. Eventually, it seems that the Greek crisis may also be conceived as part of a greater, global phenomenon, rather than a national or European one alone.