THE ORIGINS OF INTERNMENT AND SURVEILLANCE IN MODERN GREECE: THE BALKAN WARS, 1912 – 13
THE ORIGINS OF INTERNMENT AND SURVEILLANCE IN MODERN GREECE: THE BALKAN WARS, 1912 – 13

Summary/Abstract: State formation has received serious attention in the literature on modern Greece yet some certain parameters of state transformation remain overlooked. One of them is the expansion of the security capacity of the state in a wartime period and particularly the mechanisms associated with internment and captivity. This article uses as a case study the Balkan Wars of 1912 and shows how a state of emergency brought by military conflict and the need to settle, monitor, and control thousands of prisoners of wars and “unreliable” civilians forced the state to expand its bureaucratic machinery and thus strengthen its coercive capabilities. As will be explained, in 1912 – 13, the Greek state faced an impending crisis. The masses of prisoners of war that arrived in Greece created security concerns for an administrative mechanism that was not at the time capable of dealing with these kinds of challenges. Likewise, the need to monitor “dangerous” ethnic groups in the newly conquered lands enhanced this threat and added further pressures on the Greek bureaucratic machinery. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, this security crisis provided an opportunity for state expansion.

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