When I entered diplomacy, the foreign ministry was the state\u2019s principal gateway to the outside world. Important contacts between government agencies, state companies and foreign counterparts largely passed through it. An embassy was not merely a political outpost. It was the main junction connecting Ankara with the country in which it operated. That world has largely disappeared. Diplomacy is no longer conducted by diplomats alone. Energy companies, banks, technology groups, sovereign wealth funds, defence companies, intelligence agencies, universities, think tanks, cities, and business leaders have all become actors in international affairs. This does not make diplomats less important. It makes their job more complicated, and potentially more strategic. The question is therefore no longer simply: who conducts foreign policy? It is: who conducts the orchestra when so many players are on the stage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
T\u00fcrkiye is hardly a minor diplomatic power in terms of geographical presence. According to figures presented by foreign minister Hakan Fidan to parliament in November 2025, the country operated 264 overseas missions: 148 embassies, 14 permanent representations, 99 consulates-general and several other offices. The more interesting question is what T\u00fcrkiye extracts from that network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How effectively can its missions reach those who actually make decisions? How many doors do they open for Turkish companies? How much investment do they help attract? Which energy and technology partnerships do they facilitate? When a crisis erupts, are their calls answered? When a new regional order is being negotiated, does T\u00fcrkiye have a seat at the table?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diplomatic presence and diplomatic influence are not the same thing. Raising the flag is the beginning of diplomacy, not its culmination. The foreign ministry\u2019s old monopoly will not return. Nor should it. The trade ministry conducts commercial diplomacy. Energy officials negotiate over natural gas, LNG, nuclear power and electricity interconnections. Defence companies deal directly with governments. Technology agencies pursue international partnerships in batteries, semiconductors, artificial intelligence and space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agriculture, transport, climate, migration, health, culture and education have acquired their own international networks. Add corporations, banks, investment funds, universities, and municipalities, and the landscape becomes even more crowded. There is nothing inherently wrong with this proliferation. If properly managed, it is a source of national power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But when energy policy sends one message, trade another, defence a third and intelligence a fourth, this is not multi-dimensional diplomacy. It is fragmented foreign policy. The modern foreign ministry should therefore not try to do everything itself. Its role should increasingly be to see the whole chessboard, connect the players and preserve strategic coherence. The transition required is from institutional control to strategic co-ordination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
$639bn of Trade Is Also Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The old dividing line between economics and foreign policy has similarly collapsed. T\u00fcrkiye exported about $273.4bn of goods in 2025 and imported $365.4bn, producing total merchandise trade of roughly $638.7bn. Manufactured goods accounted for 94.3 per cent of exports. These are not merely commercial statistics. Behind that $639bn lie political relationships, customs regimes, sanctions, transport corridors, energy costs, financing arrangements and technology standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foreign direct investment tells a similar story. T\u00fcrkiye attracted $13.1bn of FDI in 2025, with significant flows into wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, and information and communications. Investors do not look only at tax rates. They assess political stability, legal predictability, energy costs, access to markets, human capital and a country\u2019s strategic direction. All of these increasingly fall under economic diplomacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Tonne of Steel Is Now a Diplomatic File<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Critical minerals offer an even clearer example of how the boundaries have shifted. An OECD report published in 2025 noted that an electric vehicle requires roughly six times the mineral inputs of a conventional car. Supply is also highly concentrated: the three largest producing countries account for more than 90 per cent of global production of lithium and rare earth elements. Lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths are therefore no longer simply mining commodities. They are instruments of industrial policy, energy security and geopolitics. Carbon is becoming one too. The transition phase of the EU\u2019s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism ended in 2025, bringing sectors including iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, electricity and hydrogen towards the definitive regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Turkish diplomat in Brussels who cannot understand climate regulation will increasingly struggle to understand the competitive challenges facing a Turkish steel, aluminium or cement producer. The vocabulary of diplomacy has expanded. Alongside sovereignty, security and alliances, diplomats now need to understand carbon, kilowatt-hours, chips, data, critical minerals and the cost of capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ambassador as T<\/strong>\u00fcrkiye<\/strong>\u2019<\/strong>s Country CEO<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ambassador\u2019s job description should change accordingly. Knowing the host country\u2019s foreign minister remains important. But an effective ambassador should also understand its central bank, sovereign and pension funds, major corporations, banks, energy groups, technology entrepreneurs, universities, media and emerging generation of decision makers. An ambassador should be able to position T\u00fcrkiye not only as a political interlocutor but as an investment, manufacturing, technology and trading partner. In that sense, an ambassador increasingly needs to think like T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s country CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A diplomat who cannot read a balance sheet, understand why capital enters or leaves a country, connect energy security with industrial competitiveness, or follow the economic consequences of AI will find an increasing part of the modern international system opaque. The best diplomats no longer merely transmit information to headquarters. They turn information into judgment, and judgment into influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Intelligence and diplomacy are not the same business. The boundary between diplomacy and intelligence has also become more porous. Both professions collect information, read people, try to understand what is not being said and protect the interests of the state. But their instincts are not identical.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An intelligence officer naturally asks: what does the other side really want? Where is its strength? Where is its vulnerability? What might it do against us? A diplomat needs to ask all those questions. But then comes another: \u201cDespite all this, what can we still do together?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hakan Fidan\u2019s move from heading Turkish intelligence to becoming foreign minister makes this an interesting case. The ability to read security, intelligence and geopolitics on the same strategic map is undoubtedly valuable. Yet diplomacy cannot be reduced to a transactional calculation of what was given and what was received. Sometimes preserving a relationship without signing an agreement is itself an achievement. Sometimes changing an adversary\u2019s behaviour is more useful than defeating it. Hard power deters, soft power attracts. Smart diplomacy connects both to economic power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Merit is a competitive advantage. Ultimately, all of this comes down to people. Merit in diplomacy is not simply a human resources issue. It is a matter of national security and international competitiveness. If the country opposite you sends people who understand economics, technology, security and international law while you send weaker representatives, the disadvantage is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing inherently wrong with appointing ambassadors from outside the diplomatic service. Exceptional people from business, academia, technology or international organisations can bring valuable experience. But the criterion must be exceptional competence, not political proximity. The diplomat of the future needs more than languages, protocol and elegant diplomatic cables. T\u00fcrkiye needs people who understand economics, finance, energy, technology, AI, climate and how companies make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three Strategic Priorities<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n First, turn the foreign ministry into a genuine centre of strategic co-ordination. T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s 264 overseas missions and the international activities of ministries, agencies and economic actors should operate within a common strategic picture. The foreign ministry need not play every instrument. It should conduct the orchestra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, put economic diplomacy at the centre of diplomatic careers. In an economy conducting almost $639bn of merchandise trade and attracting $13.1bn of FDI in 2025, embassy performance cannot be judged by political contacts alone. Investment, market access, technology partnerships, support for companies and strategic influence should also count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, make merit non-negotiable and redesign the diplomatic career. Diplomats should be encouraged to spend parts of their careers in international organisations, companies, banks and energy or technology institutions. When outsiders are appointed as ambassadors, proven international competence \u2014 not loyalty \u2014 should be the test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n T\u00fcrkiye already possesses substantial diplomatic reach. The next task is harder: turning reach into influence. Twenty-first-century diplomacy is not about holding every string in one hand. It is about knowing where every string leads, putting the right people around the right tables, and aligning the international reach of the state, economy and society behind a coherent strategy. Planting the flag still matters. The real measure of power is what you achieve beneath it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I entered diplomacy, the foreign ministry was the state\u2019s principal gateway to the outside world. Important contacts between government agencies, state companies and foreign counterparts largely passed through it. An embassy was not merely a political outpost. It was the main junction connecting Ankara with the country in which it operated. 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