Political Leadership and Foreign Policy in Post-Cold War Israel and Turkey

Abstract

Frequent references to "hawkish" and "dovish" leaders in Israel, or Turkey's "secular" and "Islamist" leaders, lack a systematic analysis of the personalities of political leadership in Israel and Turkey. Notwithstanding, such portrayals attract not only domestic actors in these countries but also others across the globe. Scholars, pundits, the public, as well as the policymakers, easily adapt these dichotomous and simplistic perceptions of leadership in Israel and Turkey. Utilizing contemporary at-a-distance measures of personality assessment (specifically, leadership traits analysis and operational code analysis), this study draws profiles all of Israel's and Turkey's prime ministers since November 1991. As such, this dissertation expands the political leadership literatures to two strategically located countries in the Middle East. In its unique design with two methods of personality assessment, it illustrates the gains from such an approach. Then, this study also makes an effort to link leadership styles and belief systems with foreign policy behavior. The results cast doubt on simplistic appraisals of political leadership in terms of "hawkish" and "dovish" in Israel and "secular" and "Islamist" in Turkey. Furthermore, the findings here suggest the significance of distrust of others (a personality trait in Leadership Traits Analysis) in predicting conflictual foreign policy behavior. In much broader terms, this dissertation also contributes to understanding political leaders of the Middle East.