Individual Leaders and the State: The Case of Israel as a Complex Adaptive System
Abstract
This paper focuses on foreign policy processes of states as social entities, which are made manifest as the “psychology of the state” and specified as learning effects due to external causes (object appraisal); steering effects due to internal causes (ego defense); and social interaction effects from learning and steering processes (self-other mediation).The cases under investigation are the manifest psychology of the state of Israel across three individual Israeli leaders: Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The dependent variables are their beliefs about the nature of the political universe (friendly/hostile), the most effective strategies for exercising power (cooperation/conflict), and historical control (low/high). The independent variables are the personality processes of object appraisal (terrorist attacks and fatalities), ego defense (mistrust and self-confidence), and mediation of self-other relations (task v. process orientation and belief in ability to control events. They are analyzed within the context of game theory models of complex adaptive systems.
Keywords
Operational code analysis, role theory, Israel, cooperation, conflict
Citation
Stephen G. Walker, Mark Schafer, Joshua Lambert, “Individual Leaders and the State: The Case of Israel as a Complex Adaptive System”, Uluslararası İlişkiler, Advanced Online Publication, 21 January 2025, pp. 1-18, DOI: 10.33458/uidergisi.1616778.
Affiliations
Stephen G. WALKER Professor Emeritus, School of Politics & Global Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0003-4989-8213
Mark SCHAFER Professor (retired), School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, University of Central Florida, Orlando E-Mail: [email protected] Orcid: 0000-0001-6296-8832
Joshua LAMBERT Research Associate, School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs, University of Central Florida, Orlando E-Mail: [email protected]