Vassilis Papadopoulos

Vassilis Papadopoulos is a Greek diplomat and writer. He was born in Athens in 1960. He graduated from Law School of the University of Athens and completed his two masters in International and European Law in France. In 1985 he joined the Diplomatic corps as Attaché of Embassy of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While in Athens, he worked mainly in departments of the Ministry having to do with European Union issues, including external relations, the E.U. budget, institutions and monetary issues. Abroad he has served at the Greek Consulate of San Francisco, at the Embassy in Kiev, at the Permanent Greek Delegation at the United Nations (New York), at the Embassy in Bangkok, and as Ambassador in Kiev and Bucharest .He has been teaching for many years practical issues of diplomacy and culture at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, based on interactive methods and simulations. In the 13th of March of 2020he was appointed as Chief of Staff of the Greek Precidency , by the new President of the Hellenic Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou .

Papadopoulos is the author of short stories entitled "In the Far East, Impressions of a Diplomat"  published in 2002 by Periplus editions. The book describes the mentality and way of life of the people in Asian countries, where he worked (Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos) or traveled (Indonesia, China, Nepal).

In 2008, he published a short novel titled "Olya. Two winters and one spring ". It is the story of a young Ukrainian girl, in a relationship with a rich oligarch who is an arms dealer. She inadvertently witnesses a crime and fearing for her life, she hides at the Chernobyl Forbidden Zone, next to the destroyed nuclear plant. The book has been translated into Ukrainian and Romanian.

In 2018, Omonia publishing house in Bucharest, publishes his bilingual book (Greek and Romanian) entitled "George Seferis. Between diplomacy and poetry. " It is a presentation of the poet's work, in a way that is accessible to the Romanian public. The book is particularly focused on the conflict between the two aspects of Seferis' personality, the diplomatic representative of Greece and the writer.

In 2019 he wrote a brief essay entitled "Language as a vehicle of culture. The impact of the Greek language" published by Periplus editions in which he analyzes the influence of the Greek language in other cultures over the centuries. The book was translated to Romanian and published in 2020 in Bucharest.

In 2019, the essay "Diplomacy and Poetry, the Case of George Seferis" was published by Icarus Publications and presents the poet George Seferis, focusing on his diplomatic work and the way his career influenced his literary creation. Some of his original diplomatic writings are presented for the first time, while there is a comparative analysis between his diplomatic style and his poetic language.

Vassilis Papadopoulos has delivered a series of lectures at Universities and Diplomatic Academies of various countries, both on foreign policy and international relations, as well as on culture and language.