Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Political Science

Can an individual's personal goals impact a state's foreign policy? Grandiose narcissism provides a pathway to understanding how personality can impact a leader's preferences, decision-making, and foreign policy behavior. More narcissistic leaders will focus their efforts on maintaining their inflated self-image rather than on furthering their political survival prospects or state interests. I argue that to maintain their inflated self-image, narcissistic leaders will act-out opposite their political circle's reputation in foreign policy, behave dramatically during international conflicts, and engage in more Great Power conflict. This dissertation evaluates these claims by using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods. Survey experiments with a general population sample are used to find micro-foundational support for hypotheses. Case studies and statistical analysis are used to investigate grandiose narcissism's impact on United States presidents' foreign policy decision-making and behavior from 1897-2008. Analysis finds that grandiose narcissism, a dispositional leader-level variable, is related to the frequency of international conflict, behavior during international conflict, and the targets of international conflict.

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Committee Chair); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member); Randall Schweller (Committee Member); Amy Brunell (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Personality; Personality Psychology; Political Science; Psychology; Social Psychology