Franjo Tudjman\u27s and Slobodan Milosevic\u27s Operational Code and Leadership Trait Analysis

Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia played a prominent role in the Yugoslav politics and European politics during the 1990s, but the literature on them has advanced confusing interpretations of the two leaders whose political actions affected international politics. This dissertation is the first attempt at developing replicable measures of their psychological characteristics to inform our understanding of the role these two leaders played in Yugoslav and European politics. This dissertation examines the role of Tudjman\u27s and Milosevic\u27s psychological characteristics through at-a-distance analysis of their speeches, for Tudjman to the Croatian Parliament in the 1990s, and for Milosevic to different audiences. Specifically, this dissertation measures Tudjman\u27s and Milosevic\u27s operational code and five leadership traits associated with their operational code: conceptual complexity, distrust, need for power, belief in one\u27s ability to control events, and in-group bias. Through this analysis this dissertation clarifies the controversies in the descriptive histories written on Tudjman and Milosevic, and advance a more precise understanding of their approach to politics and foreign policy