Scripting Middle East leaders
Subtitle: the impact of leadership perceptions on US and UK foreign policy
By: edited by Lawrence Freedman and Jeffrey H. Michaels
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9781441191656; 9781441108418
Subjects: Politics and government; Kings and rulers; Leadership; Middle East; Foreign relations
Description: Both the US and the UK seemed caught off-guard by the uprisings in Libya and Egypt and policymakers had to deal with leaders that switched from being allies to "pariahs." 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : strategies, stories and scripts / Lawrence Freedman; title: Emotions and threat perception : new frontiers of research / Janice Gross Stein; title: Strategic scripts and policymaking / Jeffrey H. Michaels; title: Hitler on the Nile? : British and American perceptions of the Nasser regime, 1952-70 / Nigel Ashton; title: Seeing Sadat, thinking Nasser : political and intelligence assessments of the transition / Dina Rezk; title: Images of the Ayatollah / David Patrick Houghton; title: Skewed perceptions : Yasir Arafat in the eyes of American officials, 1969-2004 / William B. Quandt; title: Saddam Hussein and US foreign policy : diabolical enemy images, policy failure, and the administrations of Bush senior and junior / Toby Dodge; title: Anglo-American perceptions of Osama bin Laden after 9/11 / Peter Neumann and Fernande Van Tets; title: Reliable enemy? : Bashar al-Asad and the United States / David W. Lesch; title: Mubarak : the embodiment of "moderate Arab leadership" / Rosemary Hollis; title: British official perceptions of Muammar Gaddafi, 1969-2011 / Christopher Andrew; title: The US and Iran : turning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad into a cipher / Scott Lucas.