PERSONAL DIPLOMACY AND GREEK FOREIGN POLICY

Year 2023, Volume: 12 Issue: 2, 561 - 585, 31.12.2023

Murat Ülgül

https://doi.org/10.30903/Balkan.1411769

Abstract

Personal diplomacy refers to a situation where a nation’s top leadership and senior officials actively involve themselves in the diplomatic efforts of their government and directly communicate with other countries’ leadership and senior officials. Despite its highly personalized domestic political system, the literature lacks an analysis of Greek foreign policy in terms of personal diplomacy and this study aims to be a first step in this direction. After providing a conceptual analysis of this concept which has started to become popular in the discipline of international relations, the study will show how personal diplomacy was successfully adopted by Venizelos towards the Turkish government in the interwar period and why this practice failed in successive decades despite repeated attempts to solve problems with Turkey through leadership communication. The hypothesis of the study is that personal diplomacy is a necessary but not sufficient element for sincere dialogue between Greece and Turkey, yet it may constitute an effective method to overcome misunderstandings between the parties.

Keywords

Greek Foreign Policy, Greek-Turkish Relations, Individual-Level Analysis, Personal Diplomacy, Political Leadership

YUNAN DIŞ POLİTİKASINDA KİŞİSEL DİPLOMASİ

Abstract

Kişisel diplomasi bir devletin siyasi liderliğinin ve üst düzey politikacılarının aktif olarak kendilerini hükümetlerinin diplomasi çabalarına dahil etmesini ve diğer devletlerin siyasi liderliği ve üst düzey yöneticileri ile iletişime geçmelerini ifade etmektedir. İleri derecede kişiselleşmiş iç siyasi sistemine rağmen mevcut literatür kişisel diplomasi bakımından Yunan dış politikasının analizi konusunda eksikliğe sahiptir ve bu çalışma bu doğrultuda bir ilk adım olma amacındadır. Bu çalışmada, Uluslararası ilişkiler disiplininde popüler olmaya başlayan bu olgunun kavramsal analizi sağlandıktan sonra çalışma, kişisel diplomasinin iki savaş arası dönemde Venizelos tarafından Türk hükümetine yönelik nasıl başarılı bir şekilde uygulandığı ve ilerleyen on yıllarda tekrarlanan denemelere rağmen Türkiye ile sorunları liderlik etkileşimi yoluyla çözme girişiminin neden başarısız olduğu ortaya konulacaktır. Çalışmanın hipotezi Yunanistan ve Türkiye arasında samimi bir diyalog için kişisel diplomasinin gerekli ama yetersiz bir olgu olduğu, bununla birlikte taraflar arasında anlaşmazlıkların üstesinden gelmede etkili bir metot oluşturabileceğidir.

Keywords

Birey-Düzeyi Analizi, Kişisel Diplomasi, Siyasi Liderlik, Yunan Dış Politikası, Yunan-Türk İlişkileri

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