Article
Turkish leaders and their foreign policy decision-making style: a comparative and multi-method perspective
Turkish Studies
(2021)
Abstract
Using both quantitative and qualitative research techniques, we investigate the effect of leaders’ style and personality on foreign policy. The study examines six Turkish leaders, Süleyman Demirel, Bülent Ecevit, Necmettin Erbakan, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Abdullah Gül, and Turgut Özal, and 18 foreign policy cases to answer the following questions: do Turkish leaders differ from each other in terms of their personality traits and styles?; how did their styles affect their foreign policy choices?; and how did they react to various domestic and international constraints they encountered in cases of foreign policy? Our findings suggest that: (a) in terms of their personality traits, Turkish leaders do not collectively fit in one category; (b) there are some stark differences among our six leaders, although some leaders are more similar to each other than others in terms of their personality traits and styles; (c) these differences were observable in the foreign policy decisions they made.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2021
DOI
10.1080/14683849.2020.1724511
Publisher Statement
Early access
Citation Information
Ç. Esra Çuhadar, Juliet Kaarbo, Barış Kesgin & Binnur Özkeçeci-Taner (2020) Turkish leaders and their foreign policy decision-making style: a comparative and multi-method perspective, Turkish Studies, DOI: 10.1080/14683849.2020.1724511