Understanding the Role of Leadership Styles of Erdogan and Merkel in Sustainability of Turkey-European Union Relations: A Leadership Trait Analysis

This study aims to understand the role of the leadership styles of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in European Union-Turkey relations by conducting a Leadership Trait Analysis (LTA), which takes into account the leaders’ personalities in foreign policy. The article makes use of the verbal records of the two leaders regarding the bilateral relations between their countries and the European Union. The results unveil that the two leaders’ personal characteristics bear similarities to a considerable extent; i.e., both leaders are sceptical in inter-personal relations, discernibly intuitive, self-confident and so forth. The study suggests that those personal traits of the leaders which have occasionally outweighed crude rationality have been some of the important factors enabling the sustainability of relations between Turkey and the EU against all odds.

Profiling foreign policy leaders in their own language: New insights into the stability and formation of leadership traits

Leaders matter in international politics. One of the main tools for assessing at-a-distance psychological characteristics of political leaders is Leadership Trait Analysis. To facilitate empirical studies, a Leadership Trait Analysis coding scheme for automated text analysis was developed to replace hand-coding. However, the coding scheme has been available only for English-language texts. To broaden research opportunities, this article presents a novel Leadership Trait Analysis coding scheme for the German language. This coding scheme allows engaging in empirical analysis based on original German language sources, thereby shedding new or different light on German foreign policy. At the same time, it contributes to moving automated content analysis beyond the English language more generally.

Forum: Coding in Tongues: Developing Non-English Coding Schemes for Leadership Profiling

Over the last twenty years since the introduction of automated coding schemes, research in foreign policy analysis (FPA) has made great advances. However, this automatization process is based on the analysis of verbal statements of leaders to create leadership profiles and has remained largely confined in terms of language. That is, the coding schemes can only parse English-language texts. This reduces both the quality and quantity of available data and limits the application of these leadership profiling techniques beyond the Anglosphere. Against this background, this forum offers five reports on the development of freely available coding schemes for either operational code analysis or leadership trait analysis for languages other than English (i.e., Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Persian).

Ensino-Aprendizagem com Game of Thrones: aplicando ferramentas de Análise de Política Externa para analisar o Dragão, o Leão e o Lobo | Teaching-Learning with Game of Thrones: Applying Foreign Policy Analysis Tools to analyze the Dragon, the Lion and the Wolf

Este artigo aplica ferramentas teóricas utilizadas para analisar liderança eprocesso decisório na subdisciplina de Análise de Política Externa (APE) à série Game of Thrones. Busca-se demonstrar que a série e seus protagonistas podem ser utilizados como instrumentos para o aprendizado aplicado do conteúdo teórico de APE no campo de estudo de Relações Internacionais. Por meio de um exemplo prático, este artigo apresenta como é possível aplicar ferramentas de Análise de Traços de Liderança a três dos principais personagens de GOT: Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen e Cersei Lannister. Conclui-se que a aplicação de novos métodos para compreensão do conteúdo teórico das disciplinas enriquece, estimula e facilita o processo de ensino-aprendizagem.Palavras-chave: Análise de Política Externa; Game of Thrones; Ensino-Aprendizagem.ABSTRACTThis article applies theoretical tools used to analyze leadership and decision making in Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) to Game of Thrones. It demonstrates that the series and its protagonists can be used as instruments for an applied learning of the FPA theoretical content in the field of International Relations. Through a practical example, this article presents how it is possible to apply Leadership Trait Analysis tools to three of GOT's main characters: Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Cersei Lannister. It is concluded that the application of new methods to understand theoretical content enriches, stimulates and facilitates the teaching-learning process.Keywords: Foreign Policy Analysis; Game of Thrones; Teaching-Learning.Recebido em 23 out.2018 | Aceito em 22 ago.2019

Uncharacteristic foreign policy behavior: Sharon’s decision to withdraw from Gaza

When leaders depart from their long-held, publicly known policy positions, one possible explanation is changes in their personality. This paper inquires about one example: Ariel Sharon’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Middle East observers long believed that Sharon was one of the last Israelis to cede any territory to Palestinians; alas, that became the decision to mark Sharon’s reign as prime minister. The “bulldozer” decided to evacuate the homes he had built. Assuming that Gaza disengagement implied a significant reassessment of Sharon’s previously held policy preferences, this paper asks if Sharon changed. Using leadership trait analysis, the paper develops two profiles of Sharon, before and during his premiership. Sharon is then profiled in three phases during his tenure: first term, second term until the announcement of disengagement, and until the end of his tenure. In making his decision, Sharon temporarily became a complex thinker, yet did not change in his distrust or develop empathy to the Palestinians. The findings suggest that leaders can experience a fundamental but temporary change to implement radically different decisions, and confirm that leaders’ traits are stable over time.

Regionally Distinct Post-Socialist Leaders: Evidence from Leadership Trait Analysis

Leaders are often noted to be instrumental in transitional political processes. Yet, most studies in the field bypass them, focusing instead on such factors as institutional setup, level of political culture, geopolitical location, diffusion of ideas and other factors. Even when highlighted, leaders are thought to be acting under the constraint of these arguably more defining factors and therefore relegated to a secondary role. Part of the problem is thought to be difficult to treat individuals as a measurable variable other than being shaped by aforementioned institutional-structural factors. Through a methodological borrowing this study determines that the leadership patterns across the region do vary in a substantial way. More importantly, the variation is determined independent of the overarching institutional-structural factors. The profiling of leadership patterns is followed by discussion of implications such exogenously determined leadership patterns may have on the study of transitional processes.

Prime minister leadership style and the role of parliament in security policy

This article explores how differences in prime ministers’ leadership styles may affect parliamentary influence in security policy. Drawing on work on personality differences in political psychology, I argue leadership style is a critical but often overlooked factor in the growing area of research on parliaments and foreign affairs. My key argument is that prime ministers vary in how they respond to and manage parliamentary involvement in security policymaking. I propose Leadership Trait Analysis to capture prime ministers’ orientations towards parliamentary involvement. I examine the plausibility of my argument with intra-country comparisons of Turkish and UK prime ministers’ orientations towards parliament in specific cases of security policy. More generally, this article challenges more formal-institutional approaches to parliaments’ role in security policy. A focus on prime ministers has an analytic advantage of bringing together some of the various factors (such as intraparty divisions and public opinion) to explain parliamentary influence in security policy.