Can an individual impact a phenomenon as overwhelming and complex as war? Do leaders impact interstate war dynamics? Leaders high in grandiose narcissism focus their efforts on maintaining their inflated self-image during war by striving desperately for victory. While most leaders sacrifice their historical image for state interests, more narcissistic leaders only exit wars if they “win”, or overcome threats to their self-image. Narcissists essentially ignore revealed information and create deadlock to avoid looking like losers. In other words, narcissistic leaders encourage us to look beyond traditional rationalist models of wartime dynamics. This paper analyzes United States’ interstate war duration from 1897 to 2007 and finds support for the argument that more narcissistic United States presidents extend war duration. This paper also compares Eisenhower’s handling of the Korean War and Nixon’s handling of the Vietnam War as an illustrative probe of causal mechanisms.
APA (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Assciation: Washington, DC.
2.
BackM. D.KüfnerA. C.DufnerM.GerlachT. M.RauthmannJ. F.DenissenJ. J. (2013). Narcissistic admiration and rivalry: Disentangling the bright and dark sides of narcissism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology105, (6), 1013-1037.
3.
BennettD. S.StamA. C. (1996). The duration of interstate wars, 1816–1985. American Political Science Review90(2), 239-257.
4.
BennettS. D.StamA. C. (1998). The declining advantages of democracy: A combined model of war outcomes and duration. Journal of Conflict Resolution42(3), 344-366.
5.
BertoliA.DafoeA.TragerR. F. (2019). Is there a war party? party change, the left–right divide, and international conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution63(4), 950-975.
6.
BesserA.PrielB. (2010). Grandiose narcissism versus vulnerable narcissism in threatening situations: Emotional reactions to achievement failure and interpersonal rejection. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology29(8), 874-902.
7.
Box-SteffensmeierJ. M.Box-SteffensmeierJ. M.JonesB. S. (2004). Event history modeling: A guide for social scientists. Cambridge University Press.
8.
BrandsH. W. (1997). TR: The last romantic. Hachette UK.
9.
BrunellA. B.CampbellW. K. (2011). Narcissism and romantic relationships. The handbook of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorders: Theoretical approaches, Empirical findings and treatments, 344–350.
10.
BrunellA. B.GentryW. A.CampbellW. K.HoffmanB. J.KuhnertK. W.DeMarreeK. G. (2008). Leader emergence: The case of the narcissistic leader. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin34(12), 1663-1676.
11.
CalinC.PrinsB. (2015). The sources of presidential foreign policy decision making: Executive experience and militarized interstate conflicts. International Journal of Peace Studies20(1), 17–34.
12.
CampbellW. K.BushC. P.BrunellA. B.SheltonJ. (2005). Understanding the social costs of narcissism: The case of the tragedy of the commons. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin31(10), 1358-1368.
13.
CampbellW. K.HoffmanB. J.CampbellS. M.MarchisioG. (2011). Narcissism in organizational contexts. Human resource management review21(4), 268–284.
14.
CarterJ.NordstromT. (2017). Term limits, leader preferences, and interstate conflict. International Studies Quarterly61(3), 721-735.
15.
ColganJ. D. (2013). Domestic revolutionary leaders and international conflict. World Pol. 65, 656-690.
16.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R. (1985). The neo personality inventory.
17.
CostaP. T.McCraeR. R. (2008). The revised neo personality inventory (neo-pi-r). The SAGE handbook of personality theory and assessment2(2), 179–198.
18.
CrocoS. E. (2011). The decider’s dilemma: Leader culpability, war outcomes, and domestic punishment. American Political Science Review105(3), 457-477.
19.
DafoeA.CaugheyD. (2016). Honor and war: southern us presidents and the effects of concern for reputation. World politics68(2), 341-381.
20.
De MesquitaB. B.SmithA.MorrowJ. D.SiversonR. M. (2005). The logic of political survival. MIT press.
21.
DhawanN.KunikM. E.OldhamJ.CoverdaleJ. (2010). Prevalence and treatment of narcissistic personality disorder in the community: a systematic review. Comprehensive psychiatry51(4), 333-339.
22.
FarrellJ. A. (2017). Richard Nixon: The Life. Vintage.
23.
FazekasZ.HatemiP. K. (2020). Narcissism in political participation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 0146167220919212.
24.
FearonJ. D. (1995). Rationalist explanations for war. International organization49(3), 379-414.
25.
FosterJ. D.CampbellW. K. (2007). Are there such things as “narcissists” in social psychology? a taxometric analysis of the narcissistic personality inventory. Personality and Individual Differences43(6), 1321-1332.
26.
FosterJ. D.CampbellW. K.TwengeJ. M. (2003). Individual differences in narcissism: Inflated self-views across the lifespan and around the world. Journal of Research in Personality37(6), 469-486.
27.
FuhrmannM. (2020). When do leaders free-ride? business experience and contributions to collective defense. American Journal of Political Science64(2), 416-431.
28.
FuhrmannM.HorowitzM. C. (2015). When leaders matter: Rebel experience and nuclear proliferation. The Journal of Politics77(1), 72-87.
29.
GallagherM. E.AllenS. H. (2014). Presidential personality: Not just a nuisance. Foreign Policy Analysis10(1), 1-21.
30.
GeorgeA. L.GeorgeJ. L. (1964). Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: a personality study. Courier Corporation.
31.
GilesC. (2020). Us election 2020: Has trump kept his promises on the military?The British Broadcasting Corporation.
32.
GladB. (2002). Why tyrants go too far: Malignant narcissism and absolute power. Political Psychology23, 2(1).
33.
GlaserC. L. (2010). Rational theory of international politics: the logic of competition and cooperation. Princeton University Press.
34.
GoemansH. E. (2000). Fighting for survival: The fate of leaders and the duration of war. Journal of Conflict Resolution44(5), 555-579.
35.
GreenbergD. (2008). Nixon as statesman: The failed campaign. Nixon in the World American Foreign Relations, 45–66.
36.
HardenJ. P. (2021). All the world’s a stage: Us presidential narcissism and international conflict. International Studies Quarterly65(3), 825-837.
37.
HatemiP. K.FazekasZ. (2018). Narcissism and political orientations. American Journal of Political Science, 62, 873-888.
38.
HerrmannR. K.VossJ. F.SchoolerT. Y.CiarrochiJ. (1997). Images in international relations: An experimental test of cognitive schemata. International Studies Quarterly41(3), 403-433.
39.
HoltzmanN. S.StrubeM. J. (2011). The intertwined evolution of narcissism and short-term mating. The handbook of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: Theoretical approaches, empirical findings, and treatments, 210–220.
40.
HorowitzM.McDermottR.StamA. C. (2005). Leader age, regime type, and violent international relations. Journal of Conflict Resolution49(5), 661-685.
41.
HorowitzM. C.StamA. C.EllisC. M. (2015). Why leaders fight. Cambridge University Press.
42.
HowellW.PevehouseJ. (2005). Separation of powers, lawmaking, and the use of military force. New directions for international relations: Confronting the method-of-analysis problem, edited by MintzAlexRussettBruce, 135–157.
43.
HughesK. (2010). Fatal politics: Nixon’s political timetable for withdrawing from vietnam. Diplomatic History34(3), 497-506.
44.
HughesK. (2015). Fatal Politics: The Nixon Tapes, the Vietnam War, and the Casualties of Reelection. University of Virginia Press.
45.
ImmermanR. H. (1979). Eisenhower and dulles: Who made the decisions?Political Psychology, 1, 21-38.
46.
JervisR. (2013). Do leaders matter and how would we know?Security Studies22(2), 153-179.
47.
JohnsonD. D.McDermottR.BarrettE. S.CowdenJ.WranghamR.McIntyreM. H.RosenS. P. (2006). Overconfidence in wargames: experimental evidence on expectations, aggression, gender and testosterone. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences273(1600), 2513-2520.
48.
KjærvikS. L.BushmanB. J. (2021). The link between narcissism and aggression: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin.
49.
KrizanZ.HerlacheA. D. (2018). The narcissism spectrum model: A synthetic view of narcissistic personality. Personality and Social Psychology Review22(1), 3-31.
50.
LasswellH. D. (1948). Power and personality (new york, 1948). The Decision Process: Seven Categories of Functional Analysis.
51.
LilienfeldS. O.WaldmanI. D.LandfieldK.WattsA. L.RubenzerS.FaschingbauerT. R. (2012). Fearless dominance and the us presidency: Implications of psychopathic personality traits for successful and unsuccessful political leadership. Journal of personality and social psychology103(3), 489-505.
52.
LivermoreS. W. (1946). Theodore roosevelt, the american navy, and the venezuelan crisis of 1902-1903. The American Historical Review51(3), 452-471.
53.
McManusR. W. (2019). Crazy like a fox? are leaders with reputations for madness more successful at international coercion?British Journal of Political Science, 51, 1-19.
54.
MillerJ. D.MaplesJ. (2011). Trait personality models of narcissistic personality disorder, grandiose narcissism, and vulnerable narcissism. The handbook of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder: Theoretical approaches, empirical findings and treatments. 71–88.
55.
MorfC. C.RhodewaltF. (2001). Unraveling the paradoxes of narcissism: A dynamic self-regulatory processing model. Psychological inquiry12(4), 177-196.
56.
MorgenthauH. J. (1950). Politics among nations. KnopfNew York.
57.
NaiA. (2019). Disagreeable narcissists, extroverted psychopaths, and elections: a new dataset to measure the personality of candidates worldwide. European Political Science18(2), 309-334.
58.
National Bureau of Economic Research, I. (2010). Us business cycle expansions and contractions. data retrieved from NBER website, https://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html
59.
NguyenL.-H. T. (2008). Waging war on all fronts: Nixon, kissinger, and the vietnam war, 1969–1972. Nixon in the World: American Foreign Relations, 185–203.
60.
NixonR. (1978). RN: the memoirs of Richard Nixon. Grosset and Dunlap.
61.
NyeJ. S. (2019). Do morals matter?: Presidents and foreign policy from FDR to Trump. Oxford University Press, USA.
62.
PachC. J.RichardsonE. (1991). The Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. University Press of Kansas.
63.
ParsonsE. B. (1971). The german-american crisis of 1902-1903. The Historian33(3), 436-452.
64.
PostA. S.SenP. (2020). Why can’t a woman be more like a man? female leaders in crisis bargaining. International Interactions46(1), 1-27.
65.
PostJ. M. (1986). Narcissism and the charismatic leader-follower relationship. Political psychology, 7, 675-688.
66.
PostJ. M. (1991). Saddam hussein of iraq: A political psychology profile. Political Psychology12(2), 279-289.
67.
PostJ. M. (1993). Current concepts of the narcissistic personality: Implications for political psychology. Political Psychology, 14, 99-121.
68.
RaskinR. N.HallC. S. (1979). A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological reports.
69.
RathbunB. C.KertzerJ. D.ParadisM. (2017). Homo diplomaticus: Mixed-method evidence of variation in strategic rationality. International Organization71(S1), S33-S60.
70.
RosenS. P. (2009). War and human nature. Princeton University Press.
71.
RubenzerS. J.FaschingbauerT. R.OnesD. S. (2000). Assessing the us presidents using the revised neo personality inventory. Assessment7(4), 403-419.
72.
SaegerJ. S. (2007). Francisco Solano López and the ruination of Paraguay: Honor and egocentrism. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
73.
SarkeesM. R.WaymanF. (2010). Resort to war: 1816-2007. correlates of war.
74.
SchrammM.StarkA. (2020). Peacemakers or iron ladies? a cross-national study of gender and international conflict. Security Studies29(3), 515-548.
75.
ShapiroJ. (2021). Joe biden and the modest return of self-deprecation. War on The Rocks.
76.
ShirkeyZ. C. (2012). When and how many: The effects of third party joining on casualties and duration in interstate wars. Journal of Peace Research49(2), 321-334.
77.
SingerJ. D. (1972). The correlates of war project: Interim report and rationale. World Politics: A Quarterly Journal of International Relations, 24, 243-270.
78.
StanleyC.MolyneuxE.MukakaM. (2016). Comparison of performance of exponential, cox proportional hazards, weibull and frailty survival models for analysis of small sample size data. Journal of Medical Statistics and Informatics4, 2(1).
79.
SteinbergB. S. (1996). Shame and humiliation: Presidential decision making on Vietnam. McGill-Queen’s Press-MQUP.
80.
SwanJ.BasuZ. (2021). Trump’s war with his generals. Axios.
81.
TimmermanM. N. (2021). Tough enough: How domestic pressure to use force affects leaders differently. Global Studies Quarterly1(3), ksab012.
82.
TwengeJ. M.CampbellW. K. (2003). “isn’t it fun to get the respect that we’re going to deserve?” narcissism, social rejection, and aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin29(2), 261-272.
83.
WaltS. M. (2015). Isis as revolutionary state. Foreign Aff. 94, 42.
84.
WaltzK. (1979). Theory of international politics. Addison Wesley Pub. Co.
85.
WattsA. L.LilienfeldS. O.SmithS. F.MillerJ. D.CampbellW. K.WaldmanI. D.RubenzerS. J.FaschingbauerT. J. (2013). The double-edged sword of grandiose narcissism: Implications for successful and unsuccessful leadership among us presidents. Psychological Science24(12), 2379-2389.
86.
WeisigerA. (2016). Learning from the battlefield: Information, domestic politics, and interstate war duration. International Organization70(2), 347-375.
87.
WidigerT. A.CostaP. T.Jr (2013). Personality disorders and the five-factor model of personality. American Psychological Association.
88.
Yarhi-MiloK. (2018). Who Fights for Reputation: The Psychology of Leaders in International Conflict, Volume 156. Princeton University Press.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
