probably should have just said anglophone world.. started to leave it at 'the west', but actually have no sense of this perception outside of anglophone countries (e.g. germany).. hence poorly selected combination of west+anglophone.. apologies
also, this was misphrased on my part. I started to mean 'the west', but realized I could only speak to my experience of perceptions of greek-egyption relations in 'the anglophone west' and mis-parenthesized the west as anglophone only.
the above article is good at pointing out that central / continental perspective of the last several hundred years is or has been different from that in the low countries + uk (and it's offshoots).. but seems to ignore the historical background of this w/r/t the protestant reformation (see HRH link ^); prior to this, 'the west' was western christendom, and the general alliance of the same countries generally continues today in modern post-enlightement/secular form (EU/Nato).