Examining the Impact of Personality Factor on Foreign Policy Decision Making: A Case Study of George W. Bush's Foreign Policy Towards Iran

Pourahmadi Meybodi, Hossein; Soltanpour, Mohammad

doi:10.22054/qpss.2022.65454.2971

Examining the Impact of Personality Factor on Foreign Policy Decision Making: A Case Study of George W. Bush's Foreign Policy Towards Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Hossein Pourahmadi Meybodi ¹

Mohammad Soltanpour ²

¹ Professor , International Relations Department, Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

² PhD Student, International Relations, Department of Political Science International Relations, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22054/qpss.2022.65454.2971

Abstract

The Iranian revolution caused an offensive approach in the American foreign policy towards Iran, and US Offensive foreign policy has taken a different form with the change of each of the presidents. Based on the critical role of the presidency in US foreign policy and the fact that the study of lives and personalities of presidents has been a significant part of the study of political psychology. The study seeks to find the psychological effects of the life of George W. Bush and his personality on the macro approach of US foreign policy, specifically to Iran. The theoretical framework in this study is the "activator, ideas and results" model of Albert Ellis, an American psychologist. This approach examines the psychological state by examining the role of events and how they are interpreted by individuals. In fact, the data used is data from Bush's biographies, which are examined in a historical and longitudinal way. In the following, Bush's psychological cycle is described and explained by determining the examples of "activator", "ideas" and "results", and his personality traits such as excitement, impulsive behaviors and extraversion are extracted. The results show the decisive influence of Bush's personality traits on his administration's macro-foreign policy approach and important decisions such as the invasion of Iraq, as well as placing Iran at the center of evil and the nuclear issue.

Keywords

US Foreign Policy

Political Psychology

Islamic Republic of Iran

George Bush

Personality

20.1001.1.23456140.1401.11.40.6.6

فارسی

- ‫اسلامی، ‌محسن و نقدی، ‌فرزانه، (۱۳۹۵)، «ابزار تحریم و سیاست خارجی امریکا در قبال ایران»، روابط خارجی، ۳۲(۸)، ۳۷-۷۱.

- جمشیدی، محمد، (1394)، جنبش راست مسیحی و سیاست خارجی آمریکا، چاپ اول، تهران: پژوهشکده مطالعات راهبردی.

- دهشیار، حسین، (۱۳۸۳)، سیاست خارجی آمریکا بعد از یازده سپتامبر، اول، تهران: خط سوم.

- غرایاق‌ زندی، ‌داود، (۱۳۸۸)، «سیاست خارجی دولت دوم جورج واکر بوش در قبال ایران: سیاست سد نفوذ (۸-۲۰۰۴)»، مطالعات راهبردی، ۴۳ (۱۲)، ۸۳-۱۱۸.

- هاوتن، دیوید پاتریک، (۱۳۹۶)، روان‌شناسی سیاسی، موقعیت‌ها، اهداف و مصادیق، ترجمه علی‌اشرف نظری و شهرزاد مفتوح، چاپ دوم، تهران: قومس.

- هاوتون، دیوید پاتریک، (۱۳۹۳)، سیاست خارجی آمریکا و بحران گروگان‌گیری در ایران، ترجمه وحید مردانه شره جینی، تهران: مرکز اسناد انقلاب اسلامی.

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