Feldman, Valenty, and their contributors present state-of-the-art evaluations of linkages between personality, motivation, decision making, leadership style, and behavior among political leaders across divergent cultures. Leading scholars in the field examine the application of theoretical approaches and research methods used to evaluate these important relationships. They effectively illustrate the concomitant role of cultural and political context, historical circumstance, environmental factors, and socialization agents affecting political leadership and performance.

Contributors evaluate methods currently in use by scholars in political science, psychology, political psychology, social psychology, and history, including psychodiagnostic and psychobiographical approaches, and the application of these methods in profiling the personalities of political leaders. Each chapter presents a unique case study evaluating a political leader or leaders including such major figures as Mao Zedong, Tony Blair, Seyyed Mohammed Khatami, Helmut Kohl, and Stalin, Yeltsin, and Putin.

Preface Introduction by Ofer Feldman and Linda O. Valenty Assessment of Personality and Leadership: Content Analytic Techniques Studying Canadian Leaders at a Distance by Peter Suedfeld, Lucian Gideon Conway III, and David Eichhorn Political Leadership and the Democratic Peace: The Operational Code of Prime Minister Tony Blair by Mark Schafer and Stephen G. Walker The 1996 Russian Presidential Candidates: A Content Analysis of Motivational Configuration and Conceptual/Integrative Complexity by Linda O. Valenty and Eric Shiraev The Personality and Leadership Style of President Khatami: Implications for the Future of Iranian Political Reform by Tanyel Taysi and Thomas Preston Profiling the Political Personality: Psychodiagnostic and Psychobiographical Approaches Linking Leadership Style to Policy: How Prime Ministers Influence the Decision-Making Process by Juliet Kaarbo Kings, Queens, and Sultans: Empirical Studies of Political Leadership in European Hereditary Monarchies by Dean Keith Simonton Mao Zedong's Narcissistic Personality Disorder and China's Road to Disaster by Michael M. Sheng Profiling Russian Leaders from a Psychohistorical and a Psychobiographical Perspective by Juhani Ihanus Benjamin Netanyahu: A Psychological Profile Using Behavior Analysis by Shaul Kimhi The Cultural Context: Applications from East to West Building the War Economy and Rebuilding Postwar Japan: Profiling of a Pragmatic Nationalist Nobusuke Kishi by Shigeko N. Fukai When and Why Do Hard-liners Become Soft? An Examination of Israeli Prime Ministers Shamir, Rabin, Peres, and Netanyahu by Yael S. Aronoff Predicting the Performance of Leaders in Parlimentary Systems: New Zealand Prime Minsiter David Lange by John Henderson Self-Presentation of Political Leaders in Germany: The Case of Helmut Kohl by Astrid Schutz The Comparative Psychoanalytic Study of Political Leaders: John McCain and the Limits of Trait Psychology by Stanley A. Renshon References Index