The price of modernisation: From 1830s Greece to the Albania of Zvërnec

Prompted by Jared Kushner’s €4 billion investment in the Albanian coast and the widespread backlash it has sparked, Richard Pine examines the enduring dilemma of modernisation. He argues that the real story is not so much about Albania as it is about the price Greece has paid—and continues to pay—in its effort to integrate into the Western economic and political reality, often at the expense of its productive base, cultural identity, and social cohesion.