How aggressive are you?
Personally, I dislike conflict, try not to start fights, and stay away from people who don’t like me. Unsurprisingly, I am also not a big fan of premptive war. Which makes me wonder: do most people’s ideas about foreign policy simply follow their everyday personality? Is Condoleezza Rice (for example) the type of person who tracks down the neighbor whose dog peed on her lawn (thus leaving a dead, yellow spot) and threatens to sue for property damage?
Well, thanks to Google (search: "personality foreign policy correlation"), I just learned that there in fact exists an entire scholarly literature on correlations between personality and American foreign policy (guess my ideas are not so original). From "Personality Effects on American Foreign Policy, 1898-1968: A Test of Interpersonal Generalization Theory" by Lloyd S. Etheredge, I learn:
In 49 cases of intraelite disagreement on force-related issues… the direction of disagreement could be predicted in over 75 percent of the cases by knowledge of individual differences in interpersonal relations […] (e.g., introverts are drawn toward impersonal principles and mechanisms like balance of power–or in an earlier period to international law).
Guess we know a few politicians who are not introverts, then. I wonder what will happen to my foreign policy ideas if I become an aggressive, space-hoarding, grant-winning junior professor…
I’m actually hoping that you, and folks like you whose blogs display a much less competitive, much more science-oriented view (Dr Freeride, Zuska, Abel Pharmboy, and so on) will go on to become supportive, space-sharing, grant-winning professors…
Comment by Bill Hooker — August 25, 2006 @ 5:51 pm