The Model of Foreign Policy-Making in Greece: Personalities versus Institutions

Abstract

Greece’s foreign policy choices and objectives have, at least until very recently, been a puzzle to many Europeans and other international actors. Greek foreign policy pursuits have been described as ‘irrational’, ‘parochial’, ‘incomprehensible’, ‘aggressive’, even ‘crazy’.1 No other member state of the European Union (EU) has in the recent years elicited such harsh criticism as Greece has, largely because of its foreign policy objectives, strategies and actions. But even within Greece itself, the foreign policy pursued since the end of the Second World War, has been described by no less a person than a former Prime Minister, Mitsotakis, as ‘a series of mistakes and disappointments’ and totally counter-productive to promoting Greece’s national interest.2 Even Greece‘s current Prime Minister, Simitis, has condemned Greece’s foreign policy as ‘catastrophic to Greece’s genuine interests’.3 Likewise, the academic and professional opinion is almost unanimously criticizing Greece’s foreign policy as ‘ineffective’, ‘erratic’ or ‘spasmodic’.4