Individual leadership and effective small state foreign policy: Luxembourg and the seat of the European institutions

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of individual traits of political leaders of small states on their relative success in conducting foreign policy. Theoretically, it seeks to establish the conditions under which specific leadership traits are conducive to different styles in foreign policy. Empirically, it applies Leadership Trait Analysis in order to formulate expectations regarding the foreign policy styles of three leaders in Luxembourg’s foreign policy (Joseph Bech, Pierre Werner, and Gaston Thorn). Subsequently, it offers an analysis of the three leaders’ foreign policy towards a vital issue in Luxembourg’s foreign policy in the 1960s and 1970s: the location of newly founded European institutions. The article confirmed the expectations regarding the three leaders’ foreign policy style: Thorn’s failure to secure the European Parliament for Luxembourg City, and that the successes of Bech and Werner in securing other institutions can be accounted for by individual differences between them.