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This book explores how liberal democratic elites' perceptions of personalist adversaries--dictators--make democracies more likely to opt for military solutions than other regime types. Madison V. Schramm argues that when conflicts of interest between liberal democracies and personalist regimes arise, leaders in liberal democracies are predisposed to perceive personalist dictators as particularly threatening, and to respond with anger--an emotional response that elicits more risk acceptance and aggressive behavior. Building on research in political science, history, sociology, and psychology, Schramm provides a novel and nuanced explanation of why democracies are so prone to military conflict with personalist regimes.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Making Meaning and Making Monsters
- Chapter 2: Patterns of Conflict between Liberal Democracies and Personalist Regimes
- Chapter 3: "His face took on a Mussolini-like mask": American and British Decision-Making in the Suez Crisis
- Chapter 4: "Playing Footsie with Saddam": American and British Decision-Making in the Gulf Crisis and War
- Chapter 5: Not another Hitler: Non-democracies' Response to the Gulf Crisis
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Appendix A: Chapter 2
- Appendix B: Chapter 5
About the author
Madison Schramm is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and a Non-resident Fellow in the Reimagining US Grand Strategy Program at the Stimson Center. Schramm's research focuses on international security, the domestic politics of foreign policy, political psychology, and gender and foreign policy. She has completed works in the subjects of US covert foreign-imposed regime change (forthcoming in the
Cambridge Elements Series in International Relations), democratic constitutional systems and international security (in
Political Science Quarterly and the
Journal of Global Security Studies), gender and conflict initiation (
Security Studies), corruption charges against women heads of government (forthcoming
Canadian Journal of Political Science), and diversity and inclusion in post-conflict states (in
Untapped Power, Oxford University Press 2022). Schramm's commentary and reviews have been published in
Foreign Affairs,
Perspectives on Politics, the
Texas National Security Review, the
Atlantic, the
Christian Science Monitor, Inkstick, the Duck of Minerva, Stimson.org, and CFR.org.
