Leaders and their followers in a dangerous world : the psychology of political behavior / Jerrold M. Post ; with a foreword by Alexander George.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [281]-291) and index.

9/11, the explosive force of personality and political behavior -- When personality affects political behavior -- The psychopolitics of illness in high office -- Terminal leadership, effects of mortal illness on political behavior -- The impact of crisis-induced stress on policy makers -- The mind of the terrorist -- The loss of enemies: fragmenting identities and ethnic/nationalist hatred in Eastern Europe -- Hate-mongering leaders in the former Yugoslavia: Radovan Karadzic and Slobodan Milosevic -- Narcissism and the charismatic leader-follower relationship -- Fidel Castro, aging revolutionary leader of an aging revolution -- Saddam Hussein, "Saddam is Iraq, Iraq is Saddam" -- Kim Jong II of North Korea, in the shadow of his father -- Concluding observations.

What impels leaders to lead and followers to follow? How did Osama bin Laden, the son of a multibillionaire construction magnate in Saudi Arabia, become the world's number-one terrorist? What are the psychological foundations of man's inhumanity to man, ethnic cleansing, and genocide? [The author] contends that such questions can be answered only through an understanding of the psychological foundations of leader personality and political behavior.... In this book, he draws on psychological and personality theories, as well as interviews with individual terrorists and those who have interacted with particular leaders, to discuss a range of issues: the effects of illness and age on a leader's political behavior; narcissism and the relationship between followers and a charismatic leader; the impact of crisis-induced stress on policymakers; the mind of the terrorist, with a consideration of "killing in the name of God"; and the need for enemies and the rise of ethnic conflict and terrorism in the post-Cold War environment. The leaders he discusses include Fidel Castro, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong II, and Slobodan Milosevic. -Dust jacket.