Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2011

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Political Science

Committee Chair

R Scott Crichlow

Abstract

Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia played a prominent role in the Yugoslav politics and European politics during the 1990s, but the literature on them has advanced confusing interpretations of the two leaders whose political actions affected international politics. This dissertation is the first attempt at developing replicable measures of their psychological characteristics to inform our understanding of the role these two leaders played in Yugoslav and European politics. This dissertation examines the role of Tudjman's and Milosevic's psychological characteristics through at-a-distance analysis of their speeches, for Tudjman to the Croatian Parliament in the 1990s, and for Milosevic to different audiences. Specifically, this dissertation measures Tudjman's and Milosevic's operational code and five leadership traits associated with their operational code: conceptual complexity, distrust, need for power, belief in one's ability to control events, and in-group bias. Through this analysis this dissertation clarifies the controversies in the descriptive histories written on Tudjman and Milosevic, and advance a more precise understanding of their approach to politics and foreign policy.

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