Crisis management

The Greek political system and state apparatus have supposedly learned a lot from the 1996 Imia crisis, when Greece and Turkey came to the brink of armed conflict over the uninhabited Aegean islets.

However, 22 years on, certain things have still not changed. A basic systemic flaw has been the absence of a small yet flexible national security council to coordinate the prime minister's office with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Defense Ministry, the National Intelligence Agency (EYP), and other security services. Rather, we have a diplomatic counselor at the Maximos Mansion, some military officers and the Council on Foreign Policy and Defense (KYSEA), which convenes only for some formal decisions.

"But everybody speaks with everybody," someone may argue. But that's not enough, and this is exactly what the Greek system lacks: a set of procedures which are...