Michael J. Strauss: A Way to Rescue Greece
[Michael J. Strauss, who teaches geopolitics at the Centre d’Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques in Paris, is the author of “The Leasing of Guantánamo Bay.”]
Nations sometimes lease pieces of their territory to one another, and the resulting servitude typically benefits both parties: One gets the use of additional space while the other is compensated financially, politically, or in some other way.
Nearly every lease has been created at the behest of the country that sought to gain from the added territory, but there is no reason why such an arrangement can’t be instigated by the nation that would benefit from the compensation. Financially ailing Greece would do well to consider this as an alternative to some of the austerity measures that are provoking unrest and disruptions....
There are plenty of countries that wouldn’t mind securing temporary rights in parts of Greece or in other troubled E.U. nations like Portugal or Spain. Even restricted rights can be attractive, like the ability to exploit a single resource or engage in some other lucrative activity.
Greece itself was the laboratory that showed this can work, back in 1897. It had declared bankruptcy four years earlier, curtailing payments on foreign debts. After long, tough negotiations, an agreement was reached that gave the creditor nations the ability to pay themselves off with future funds generated on Greek territory. They got the right to collect import duties at the port of Piraeus, to keep revenues from state monopolies that sold oil, salt and matches, and to collect taxes on tobacco until the debts were paid off. Greece retained complete policymaking authority in the areas concerned, notably trade....
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Nations sometimes lease pieces of their territory to one another, and the resulting servitude typically benefits both parties: One gets the use of additional space while the other is compensated financially, politically, or in some other way.
Nearly every lease has been created at the behest of the country that sought to gain from the added territory, but there is no reason why such an arrangement can’t be instigated by the nation that would benefit from the compensation. Financially ailing Greece would do well to consider this as an alternative to some of the austerity measures that are provoking unrest and disruptions....
There are plenty of countries that wouldn’t mind securing temporary rights in parts of Greece or in other troubled E.U. nations like Portugal or Spain. Even restricted rights can be attractive, like the ability to exploit a single resource or engage in some other lucrative activity.
Greece itself was the laboratory that showed this can work, back in 1897. It had declared bankruptcy four years earlier, curtailing payments on foreign debts. After long, tough negotiations, an agreement was reached that gave the creditor nations the ability to pay themselves off with future funds generated on Greek territory. They got the right to collect import duties at the port of Piraeus, to keep revenues from state monopolies that sold oil, salt and matches, and to collect taxes on tobacco until the debts were paid off. Greece retained complete policymaking authority in the areas concerned, notably trade....