Description
Although recent efforts have sought to bridge the gap between Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) and the broader discipline of International Relations (IR), scholarship in these two areas still tends to operate independently. This article argues that further integrating constructivism with psychological approaches to FPA can resolve the puzzle of why cultures of anarchy change, despite constructivism’s expectation that existing structures typically constrain and shape agents’ actions in ways that reinforce these structures over time. I demonstrate how individual leaders’ personalities influence their choices to securitize or desecuritize other state actors, which in turn shapes broader shifts in interstate relations. Unlike traditional perspectives that focus on either individual-level behavior or structural norms, this article shows how these elements interact in a dynamic process that leads to shifts in anarchy—from enmity to rivalry to amity, and vice versa. By merging leader profiling approaches, such as operational code analysis and leadership trait analysis, with securitization theory and constructivism, this article offers a novel framework for understanding systemic change. It contributes to both FPA and IR by bridging micro and macro perspectives, filling a significant gap in constructivist theory, and expanding the theoretical scope of personality research in FPA.
