This master thesis focuses on the role of the individual in foreign policy decision-making process. The goal of the master thesis is to conduct a research on how an individual’s personality influences the decision-making process. The goal is solidified in the thesis that presumes that the leader of a big power interprets the costs of an intervention in the periphery state, according to his personality. In the case study I focus on the Afghanistan war, where the United States represent the big power and Afghanistan represents the periphery state. I analyse the personalities of presidents Bush and Obama during their two mandates or more accurately during the Afghanistan war between 2001 and 2017. I study their annual decision to prolong the intervention with the help of prospect theory and explain that the intervention is prolonged because of a subjective interpretation of the costs of war. Both presidents interpret the costs through their personality as a loss, are prepared to make riskier decision and because of this they annually decide to prolong the military intervention in Afghanistan. My findings are interlinked with the personalities of both presidents and based on the objective state, that is explained through the financial aspect of the costs of war, I prove that the president’s personality influenced the interpretation of the costs of war.
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