Diplomacy is often (mis)understood as a process of promoting national foreign policy positions, through social interactions in luxurious settings away from public scrutiny. But foreign policy affects people’s daily lives as well as serving ‘national interests’. As such, diplomacy should operate as any other technocratic profession in assisting the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. 

'Applied diplomacy' implies a process of setting goals and identifying appropriate tools for the implementation of foreign policy, reflecting the needs of the people and the country as a whole. These tools must be flexible, reliable and adapted to these individual/national needs. Applied diplomacy can be practiced at the bilateral or multilateral levels, a combination of the two or in other fora. Through use of examples relating to Greece and other ‘small’ or ‘medium’ states, the speaker will develop the theme of ‘applied diplomacy’ and argue that it is a ‘practical science’ which offers many opportunities as well as challenges.

Meet our speaker and chair 

Yannis Tsaousis was appointed Ambassador of the Hellenic Republic to the Court of St James’s in March 2023. Previously Ambassador Tsaousis was the Director of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2019 to 2023. Since joining the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997, he has served in a wide range of Diplomatic Service roles in Athens and abroad, including service in the Permanent Representation of Greece to NATO in Brussels (1999-2003), in Cyprus (2003-2007), South Africa (2009-2012) and in the Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN and other Organisations in Geneva (2012-2016). Ambassador Tsaousis holds a Bachelor in Law from the University of Athens and postgraduate degrees from the University of Kent (LLM), the University of Paris I- Sorbonne (D.E.A.) and the University of Oxford (MSt) in the fields of Public International Law and International Organisations. 

Spyros Economides is Associate Professor in International Relations and European Politics at LSE and Deputy Director of the Hellenic Observatory. He was a Research Associate of the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College and at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He has also served as Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College, USA, and in the Faculties of Political Science at the Universities of Zagreb, Croatia and Belgrade, Serbia. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the EU Centre in Singapore. His current research concentrates on the external relations and security policies of the EU; Europeanisation and foreign policy, and the EU’s relationship with the Western Balkans. Dr Economides is also a regular commentator in national and international media on issues relating to Greece and those of the Western Balkans. His latest publication is Economides and Sperling (eds.) EU Security Strategies: Extending the EU System of Security Governance (2018).

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The Hellenic Observatory (@HO_LSE) is internationally recognised as one of the premier research centres on contemporary Greece and Cyprus. It engages in a range of activities, including developing and supporting academic and policy-related research; organisation of conferences, seminars and workshops; academic exchange through visiting fellowships and internships; as well as teaching at the graduate level through LSE's European Institute.