But in the ongoing negotiations over Greece's government debt after the far-left Syriza party's recent electoral triumph, it is exactly these kinds of irredentist arguments that reemerge. To gain leverage in a desperate situation, Greek officials freely (and brutally) mix economic and fiscal policies with talk about historical debt and past wrongs. The result is bitterness on all sides, a loss of trust and goodwill, and a reduced chance of compromise.
It would be too simple, of course, to attribute these phenomena to the United States' reduced presence alone. As always in Europe, a multiplicity of factors is at play. However, the key historical truth in all of this-that Europe is an inherently fragile and unstable continent-remains valid.
Europe has yet to prove it can take care of itself. The initial developments in the last twenty years, since the United States started to reduce its political and military footprint in the Old World, are not encouraging. No matter how much both Americans and Europeans loathe hearing it, Pax Americana, and the infusion of trust it brought to Europe, might be needed for just a little bit longer.
