Tansu Çiller`s Leadership Traits and Foreign Policy

Authors : Barış KESGİN

Pages : 29-50

View : 23 | Download : 8

Publication Date : 2012-10-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In the post-Cold War era, from 1993 to 1996, Tansu Çiller led Turkey through volatile political and economic crises. Moreover, she had a strong interest in foreign affairs and her leadership attracted attention from abroad as she was a female prime minister of a predominantly Muslim nation. Much like the general lack of interest in psychological factors in Turkish foreign policy, there is little research on personality and its impact on Turkeyıs foreign affairs. In this paper, Çiller’s leadership is systematically studied by utilising one of the most prominent methods of leadership assessment: leadership traits analysis. This paper first profiles Tansu Çiller as prime minister and then compares her to other Turkish leaders in the post-Cold War era. Its findings suggest that Çiller’s high in-group bias and high distrust mark her leadership and foreign policy behaviour. The paper highlights the significance of personalities in foreign policy making and calls for systematic accounts of this effect on Turkeyıs foreign policy.
Keywords : Profiling political leaders, at a distance assessment, leadership traits analysis, Tansu Çiller, prime ministers and Turkish foreign policy