Dr. Femke Bakker shares her life experiences drawing from her various careers and personal life to demonstrate the power of self-gentleness as an antidote to perfectionism. She explains the power... Show moreDr. Femke Bakker shares her life experiences drawing from her various careers and personal life to demonstrate the power of self-gentleness as an antidote to perfectionism. She explains the power of meditation and self-gentleness as a way to radically accept oneself to consistently deserve one's own gentleness. Show less
As a psychological approach to foreign policy analysis, operational code analysis (OCA) has traditionally focused on individual leaders. In this chapter, we aim to expand the scope of OCA to the... Show moreAs a psychological approach to foreign policy analysis, operational code analysis (OCA) has traditionally focused on individual leaders. In this chapter, we aim to expand the scope of OCA to the analysis of foreign policy and security documents. We argue that the beliefs of leaders impact their policy choices. We expect these beliefs to be reflected subsequently in the policy documents of their administrations. To test our argument, we compare the operational codes of US presidents Bush (43rd), Obama, and Trump with the operational codes of their administration's key foreign policy documents. The objective is to discover whether similar patterns exist between the operational codes of the US presidents and their policy papers. With this chapter, we aim to explore a new research avenue that can potentially allow us to better explain foreign policy-making. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the limits and opportunities of extending OCA to policy documents. Show less
What influences decision-makers to attack another country when on the brink of war? The main aim of this study is to detect a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when... Show moreWhat influences decision-makers to attack another country when on the brink of war? The main aim of this study is to detect a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when on the brink of war, and whether or not this mechanism differs between regime-types. It investigates whether or not regime-type, the nature of the conflict, the power used, and hawkish beliefs of decision-makers matter in this decision. By addressing this question from a political psychological and comparative perspective, this dissertation tests the microfoundations of democratic peace theory simultaneously with alternative theories of decision-making during conflict resolution.The core analytical instrument is a decision-making experiment, executed in the US, Russia, and China. The experimental results are triangulated with a large N-study, and a case study. The overall results show that although the democratic peace as an empirical regularity might still be valid, the theoretical arguments to explain why democracies do not fight with each other turn out to be built on empirically unsupported foundations. This study argues that an actor-based approach towards decision-making processes within international relations offers important insights to the more structured-based theories of international relations. It thereby convincingly shows that the individual matters, also in IR. Show less
The concept and ideal of statesmanship have been handed down to us from ancient to modern times, but it has a paradoxical relationship with the modern state. While terminology suggests that... Show moreThe concept and ideal of statesmanship have been handed down to us from ancient to modern times, but it has a paradoxical relationship with the modern state. While terminology suggests that statesmanship presupposes the state, in fact it appears rather incongruent with modern (i.e., constitutional, democratic, and bureaucratic) statehood. Nonetheless, statesmanship continues to be promoted and new understandings, such as judicial and administrative statesmanship, have been proposed. Some hope, moreover, that statesmanship becomes more feasible again as we transfer from state government to multilevel governance. There are problems, however, with conceiving of statesmanship, either in its original or in its newer meanings, under these new conditions. Despite the enduring appeal of statesmanship, the changing role of the state in present-day governance does not mean that this ideal can be easily regained. Show less
Scholars of democratic peace theories argue that the causal mechanism of the democratic peace is founded on the internalized liberal norms of democratic societies, which are subsequently assumed to... Show moreScholars of democratic peace theories argue that the causal mechanism of the democratic peace is founded on the internalized liberal norms of democratic societies, which are subsequently assumed to be lacking among citizens of societies of different regime types. I argue that the corroborating results of earlier empirical work are overextended and that the mechanism should be empirically tested using a comparative perspective that considers the variance of the independent variable. This article provides experimental evidence that compares the impact of liberal norms on a population residing and socialized within a democracy (the Netherlands) with a population residing and socialized within an autocracy (China) and their respective supports for war with another state. The comparison shows that the level of liberal norms in the democratic experimental group, although significantly higher than that in the autocratic experimental group, does not influence the support to go to war. Moreover, the threat of the conflict turns out to be the key indicator for the support for war among both groups. This finding provides a clearer understanding of the relationship between regime type and the use of force, and has important implications for democratic peace theories. Show less
