Research Proposal (Political Psychology) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Research Proposal (Political Psychology) - Essay Example This research project intends to analyze the failed diplomacy efforts of former UN Weapons Inspector Hanz Blix that precipitated the excessive levels of distortion surrounding his official testimony and related exchanges that took place after 9/11. To that end, political psychology can help to demystify these failed efforts at international diplomacy demonstrated in his efforts to diffuse an extremely tense and volatile international crisis. Although Blix fulfilled his ideologically-neutral role as a UN Weapons Inspector throughout the debacle, his middle road diplomatic style can be summarized, in retrospect, as an unmitigated disaster. In the shadow of an imminent invasion of Iraq by the US, neither US nor EU hegemonic superpowers scrutinizing his inspection efforts were satisfied with his reports. To explore these failed diplomatic efforts, the current research project intends to compare and contrast the historical and psychological forces at play that wedged Blix between two disp arate styles of international superpower diplomacy in operation at the time of his analysis, discuss the possible justifications for his middle road approach that failed to diffuse these tense international interactions, and describe how his inability to directly negotiate or otherwise influence US or EU officials exacerbated his failed diplomacy; all factors of failed diplomacy expediting the subsequent invasion of Iraq. The working hypothesis therefore, suggests that both the US and the EU have very different styles of diplomacy, that as an allegedly neutral operative of a neutral international peace-keeping committee associated with the United Nations he was prohibited from formally demonstrating an orientation toward either a US or the EU diplomatic style, and that in his desire to objectively and rationally approach the question of WMD in Iraq, he chose the middle road diplomacy approach which failed to endear his team to either US officials