Understanding the new middle eastern leaders : an operational code approach

Abstract

Ankara : The Department of International Relations İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, 2014.

Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2014.

Includes bibliographical references leaves 163-179.

Political Islam and particular Islamist organizations have broadly gained
 strength across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the post-Cold War era.
 The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is viewed as the world‘s largest and most influential
 Islamist organization impinging upon the wider landscape of contemporary MENA
 politics. The psychological approach contends that the characteristics of leaders making
 foreign policy are crucial to understanding ultimate foreign policy outcomes (Hudson
 2005). In this literature, the study of leaders‘ beliefs is one the most progressive
 approaches to world politics which focuses on leaders‘ belief systems and their impacts
 on foreign policy-making (Leites 1951; George 1969). By utilizing the operational code
 analysis, this research aims to unravel the general patterns of Islamist foreign policy 
 iv
 manifested itself in three MB-affiliated MENA leaders‘ foreign policy behaviors in the
 post-Arab uprisings era: Egypt‘s Morsi, Tunisia‘s Ghannouchi, and Hamas‘ Meshaal.
 Two main hypotheses are posited in this thesis. First, the foreign policy beliefs of three
 MB-affiliated MENA leaders are not significantly different from the world leaders‘
 included in the ‗norming group.‘ Secondly, it is hypothesized that foreign policy
 behaviors of three Islamist leaders designate uniformity pattern even though these
 leaders operate in quite different political and cultural settings. The analysis results
 yield that operational codes of three MB leaders are analogous to the average world
 leader‘s since there are only a few statistically significant differences. The findings also
 support the argument that despite operating in different political systems, all three MBIslamists
 exhibit similar foreign policy behaviors towards the ‗other‘ in a strategic
 environment.

Canbolat, Sercan

M.S.