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Is Portugal a semi-peripheral country? The answer to that question depends on your perspective. The editors of this book see Portugal as being at the periphery of the European Union (EU) and the eurozone (EZ), but from most of the Global South, Portugal would appear to be very close to the core of the global economy, perhaps at the semi-core. In both cases, however, the global position of Portugal is defined by its position vis-à-vis other European countries. If the core of Europe is defined by what are commonly considered the non-Mediterranean parts of Western Europe, stretching from Ireland to Austria and from Norway and Iceland to Switzerland and France, there would be vast peripheries of Europe: the Mediterranean periphery that includes Portugal, the East-Central European periphery that includes former socialist states now included in the EU, and the further-East European periphery that includes former socialist states not (yet) included in the EU. In addition, countries that economically speaking appear to be at the core of Europe may actually not be part of the EU, such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and now also the UK. Politically speaking, these countries are peripheral to the EU, in part because many EU regulations will apply to them as well; except for Switzerland they are part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and except for the UK they are part of the Schengen Information System (SIS). Portugal is not only in the EU and EZ but also in the EEA and the SIS. In other words, Portugal may as well constitute the core. Yet, the inclusion of Portugal in the EZ oddly also may define it as peripheral as the monetary conditions of the …