Wow! eBook
Scripting Middle East Leaders: The Impact of Leadership Perceptions on U.S. and UK Foreign Policy
Author(s): Lawrence Freedman (Author, Editor), Jeffrey Michaels
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Publication Date: 14 Feb. 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 192 pages
- ISBN-10: 1441191658
- ISBN-13: 9781441191656
Book Description
This collection of essays, written by leading scholars, examines the evolution of British and American perceptions of ‘adversaries’ in the Middle East since the Cold War. It traces the evolution of how leaders have been perceived, what determined such perceptions, and how they can change over time. It shows that in many cases the beliefs held by policymakers have influenced their policies and the way they adapted during crisis.
Each essay focuses on a Middle East leader, such as Nasser, Assad, Hussein, or Ahmadinejad, discussing what these leaders’ objectives were perceived to be, the assessments of their willingness to take risks or negotiate, and how such assessments changed overtime and were evaluated in retrospect.
This groundbreaking contribution to the literature on leadership attitudes and perceptions in policymaking toward the Middle East will appeal to anyone studying foreign policy, Middle East politics and political psychology.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This collection of well-researched essays describes the images that American and British policy-makers have formed of their ten major Middle East adversaries over recent years – from Abdul Nasser through Arafat and Saddam Hussein to Bashar al-Asad and Ahmadinejad – and how these images have influenced their policies. The portraits are revealing and intriguing, even entertaining. Academics who cannot indulge in entertainment should still find the time to read the valuable introductory chapters, illuminating, with reference to recent advances in cognitive science, the processes by which policy-makers, inevitably swayed by complex emotions, try to make sense of the information coming to them, and devise “strategic scripts+? as a basis for action.
This is really a marvelous project – timely, important, and with absolutely first-rate authors. Students, professionals in the field, and members of the interested public will find it fascinating and instructive.
CHOICE
