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Qualifications

• PhD, MA, Political Science (The Ohio State University)
• BA, Political Science (University of Oklahoma)

Biography

Juliet Kaarbo joined the Politics and International Relations department in June 2011 as a Senior Lecturer and was promoted to Professor with a Personal Chair in Foreign Policy in 2015. She served as Postgraduate Adviser for Politics & International Relations (2013-2016) and is the founding co-Director of CeSeR http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/ceser.

Julie previously held posts at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and the University of Kansas where she served as Director of Faculty Programs in the Office of International Programs, and as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science. In 2009, she was awarded a Visiting Scientist Fellowship by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. She has received awards for conference papers and for post-graduate mentoring.

Julie is the 2018 Distinguished Scholar in Foreign Policy Analysis for the Foreign Policy Analysis section of the International Studies Association.

Research Interests

Julie’s research focuses on political psychology, leadership and decision making, group dynamics, foreign policy analysis, foreign policy roles, and parliamentary political systems. Areas of specialization include German, British, Israeli, Dutch, Japanese, Turkish, and U.S. foreign policy. Her research has appeared in various journals, including International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, British Journal of Politics and International Relations,  International Studies Review, Political Psychology, Cooperation and Conflict, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Leadership Quarterly. She has co-written multiple versions of two textbooks -- Global Politics and Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective:

Recent Publications

• Wolfgang Wagner, Anna Herranz-Surralles, Juliet Kaarbo, and Falk Ostermann (2018) ’Party Politics at the Water’s Edge:  Contestation of Military Operations in Europe’, European Political Science Review. 
• Ryan Beasley and Juliet Kaarbo, (2018) 'Casting for a Sovereign Role: Socialising an Aspirant State in the Scottish Independence Referendum,'  European Journal of International Relations. 
• Juliet Kaarbo, (2018) ‘Prime Minister Leadership Style and the Role of Parliament in Security Policy,’ British Journal of Politics and International Relations.
• Juliet Kaarbo (2017) 'Coalition Politics, International Norms, and Foreign Policy: Multiparty Decision-making Dynamics in Comparative Perspective,' International Politics.
• Cristian Cantir and Juliet Kaarbo (published online 2017), 'Domestic Role Contestation and Foreign Policy,' Encyclopedia of Foreign Policy Analysis, Oxford University Press.

• Juliet Kaarbo and Daniel Kenealy (2017), 'Precedents, Parliaments, and Foreign Policy:  Historical Analogy in the House of Commons Vote on Syria,' West European Politics. 

• Wolfgang Wagner, Anna Herranz-Surralles, Juliet Kaarbo, and Falk Ostermann (2017) 'The Party Politics of Legislative-Executive Relations in Security and Defence Policy,' West European Politics.  

• Esra Cuhadar, Juliet Kaarbo, Baris Kesgin, Binnur Ozkececi-Taner, (2017) 'Personality or Role? Comparisons of Turkish Leaders Across Different Institutional Positions,' Political Psychology.

• Esra Cuhadar, Juliet Kaarbo, Baris Kesgin, & Binnur Ozkececi-Taner (2017) 'Examining Leaders’ Orientations to Structural Constraints: Turkey’s 1991 and 2003 Iraqi War Decisions,' Journal of International Relations and Development.

• Cristian Cantir and Juliet Kaarbo, Editors (2016) Domestic Role Contestation, Foreign Policy, and International Relations  Routledge.  

• Juliet Kaarbo and Daniel Kenealy (2016) 'No, Prime Minister:  Explaining the House of Commons Vote on Intervention in Syria,' European Security.

Personalities of Political World Leaders

This project includes a number of research tracks, including research on Turkish leaders, previously funded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.  I intend to extend this study to other world leaders, examining how leaders’ personalities change in office.  Related to this research, I am co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Political Executives.

National Roles:  Contestation & Socialisation

This research builds on recent developments in role theory to examine how internal political actors define their state's rolein the world and how external actors socialise roles.  I am co-writing a paper on the sovereignty-role nexus in Brexit.  Another collaborative project engages role theory with the ‘EU as Power’ debates, using text analytical methods of diverse data.                                                                                                                      

Coalition Cabinets, Political Parties, & Parliaments in Foreign Policy

My research continues to examine the effects of coalition cabinets and political party disagreements on foreign policy. I am part of a research team doing comparative analyses on parties’ positions on military deployments (see http://deploymentvotewatch.eu).   This extends my previous work on historical precedents in parliamentary influence in foreign policy, the role of parliament in Turkish and UK foreign policy, and the importance of prime ministers’ orientations toward parliament and party politics in foreign policy.

Foreign Policy Analysis:  Contributions to International Relations

Building on my recent article on how a foreign policy analysis perspective can inform the domestic and decision making turn in international relations theory, I am co-authoring a paper on how this argument applies to scholarship on the international relations of the Middle East. 

Recent Professional Activities

Expert Testimony

Invited witness for the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee’s Inquiry on the Foreign Policy Implications of and for a Separate Scotland, London, 15 January 2013.  

Invited witness for the Scottish Parliament European and External Relations Committee’s evidence session on ‘The Scottish Government’s Proposals for an Independent Scotland’, Edinburgh, 12 June 2014.

Selective Presentations

 'The Scottish Question,' Brookings Center on the United States and Europe, Brookings Institution, 12 September 2014 (broadcast nationally in the U.S. on CSPAN; available at 

'Foreign Policy Considerations for an Independent Scotland,' Scottish Parliament Staff Development Seminar, 15 April 2014. 

'An Independent Scottish Foreign Policy,' in “The Independence Debate with Kirsty Wark,” at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, 13 August 2013.

Selective Blogs

'As Others See Us:  The Striking Similarities between Brexit and Scottish Independence Debates,’ Herald Scotland, 21 June 2016: 

'The Birth of a State has Many Midwives,' with Ryan Beasley, on the University of Edinburgh’s Blog Scotland’s Referendum:  Informing the Debate, 8 December 2013.

'Too small for the big leagues? Foreign policy in an independent Scotland,' on the University of Edinburgh’s Blog Scotland’s Referendum:  Informing the Debate, 25 January 2013.

Topics interested in supervising

foreign & security policy * political psychology * political leadership * group decision-making * parliamentary systems * the role of individuals and domestic politics in international relations

If you are interested in being supervised by Juliet Kaarbo, please see the links below for more information: