Organising Greek commercial diplomacy: oscillating between integrated and fragmented models of organisation

In a growing number of countries, national diplomatic systems are in a process of profound transformation as a response to the dynamics of globalisation and regionalisation. In this process, a key element of change is that commercial and business activities have become foreign policy priority. In order to pursue this priority effectively, governments of developed economies have integrated commercial diplomacy to their national diplomatic systems by re-arranging their foreign ministries, centralising commercial diplomacy or in some cases merging their foreign ministries and trade/economic ministries. And although literature on commercial diplomacy of competitive economies has found its way into the mainstream of diplomatic studies, there is lack of smaller country based studies with regard to how they choose to organise their commercial diplomacy. Such national accounts of changing diplomatic structures, processes and practices inform well the study of contemporary diplomacy and foreign policy. In this light, this article aims to explore the contemporary organisational setup of commercial diplomacy in Greece. More specifically, it seeks to investigate the structures and processes that Greek governments have put in place for the effective conduct of commercial diplomacy in a globalised world and whether the Greek case is aligned with mainstream developments in the said area of diplomacy.