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The case that is Bildt: En VICS-odyssé i Carl Bildts Operational Code i kölvattnet till Georgienkriget

Forsén, Richard LU (2015) STVK02 20151
Department of Political Science
Abstract
This thesis is an attempt to identify possible changes in the operational code of the former Swedish minister for foreign affairs Carl Bildt following the Georgian war of August 2008. The analysis uses the VICS (Verbs In Context System) coding scheme developed by Stephen G. Walker, Mark Schafer and Michael D. Young to quantitively analyze public speeches made by Bildt from before and after the war in the Caucasus. The thesis furthermore introduces beliefs and the operational code construct as concepts within foreign policy decision making and international relations theory. The coding has throughout been done with the computer program Profler Plus 7.3.2. using a customized coding scheme to as accurately as possible analyze the speeches of... (More)
This thesis is an attempt to identify possible changes in the operational code of the former Swedish minister for foreign affairs Carl Bildt following the Georgian war of August 2008. The analysis uses the VICS (Verbs In Context System) coding scheme developed by Stephen G. Walker, Mark Schafer and Michael D. Young to quantitively analyze public speeches made by Bildt from before and after the war in the Caucasus. The thesis furthermore introduces beliefs and the operational code construct as concepts within foreign policy decision making and international relations theory. The coding has throughout been done with the computer program Profler Plus 7.3.2. using a customized coding scheme to as accurately as possible analyze the speeches of Mr. Bildt in his function as Swedish minister of foreign affairs. The use of Profiler Plus 7.3.2 and the modified dictionary has been possible through the generous assistance of Social Science Automation, Inc. and Dr Michael D. Young.
The conclusions from the VICS analysis at first glance seem to point toward the Georgian war leaving an increasing positive and optimistic streak in the operational code of Bildt. A theoretical explanation as to the reason for this could be that the Georgian events of August 2008 simply didn’t clash with Bildts previous belief-sets the same way that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan shook Jimmy Carter or the events of 9/11 shook George W. Bush. Any conclusions are, however, burdoned with methodological and theoretical reservations which invite for future studies on the case of Bildt and the Georgian war as well as operational code belief change and cognitive change as a whole. (Less)
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author
Forsén, Richard LU
supervisor
organization
course
STVK02 20151
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Carl Bildt, Operational Code, Georgian war of 2008, cognitive change, belief change, VICS
language
Swedish
additional info
The author would like to thank Dr Michael D. Young of Social Science Automation, Inc. for his kind and generous assistance during the course of this project. Another thank you goes out to Dr. Mark Schafer at the University of Central Florida for providing important data from previous VICS analyses.
id
5426154
date added to LUP
2015-07-13 12:30:06
date last changed
2015-07-13 12:30:06
@misc{5426154,
  abstract     = {{This thesis is an attempt to identify possible changes in the operational code of the former Swedish minister for foreign affairs Carl Bildt following the Georgian war of August 2008. The analysis uses the VICS (Verbs In Context System) coding scheme developed by Stephen G. Walker, Mark Schafer and Michael D. Young to quantitively analyze public speeches made by Bildt from before and after the war in the Caucasus. The thesis furthermore introduces beliefs and the operational code construct as concepts within foreign policy decision making and international relations theory. The coding has throughout been done with the computer program Profler Plus 7.3.2. using a customized coding scheme to as accurately as possible analyze the speeches of Mr. Bildt in his function as Swedish minister of foreign affairs. The use of Profiler Plus 7.3.2 and the modified dictionary has been possible through the generous assistance of Social Science Automation, Inc. and Dr Michael D. Young.
The conclusions from the VICS analysis at first glance seem to point toward the Georgian war leaving an increasing positive and optimistic streak in the operational code of Bildt. A theoretical explanation as to the reason for this could be that the Georgian events of August 2008 simply didn’t clash with Bildts previous belief-sets the same way that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan shook Jimmy Carter or the events of 9/11 shook George W. Bush. Any conclusions are, however, burdoned with methodological and theoretical reservations which invite for future studies on the case of Bildt and the Georgian war as well as operational code belief change and cognitive change as a whole.}},
  author       = {{Forsén, Richard}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The case that is Bildt: En VICS-odyssé i Carl Bildts Operational Code i kölvattnet till Georgienkriget}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}