This article builds upon work linking the psychological characteristics of heads of
government to their foreign policy preferences. The primary interest is in
determining whether there is a similar link between the psychological
characteristics of secretaries of state and foreign ministers and their policy
preferences during international disputes. Examining the behavior of a varied set of
ministers in a set of 16 decision events, such a link is found. This has important
implications for those interested in understanding and predicting foreign policy,
and points to the powerful personal influence exerted by these individuals.
Additionally, the findings include interesting results dealing with the relative
power of various cognitive and personality influences on decision-makers’
policy preferences. Cognitive influences and perceptions of the other have a
particularly strong effect on the policies promoted by these decision-makers.
Implications of these findings for both the political psychology and governmental
politics literatures are also discussed.
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