Who Leads Matters? A study of presidential leadership and its impact on environmental policy

Abstract: As climate change is a global threat it is of essence to understand how we can work against it. Research within the sphere of Peace and Conflict Studies lacks the perspective of the psychology behind world leaders as an explanation for how environmental policy is conducted. This thesis investigates what type of leader Obama and Trump are, what implications that has on environmental policy and how environmental policy can be understood by looking at leadership types. This is analysed through a comparative case study using the lens of leadership theory and psychological models to determine Obama’s leadership style – most likely accommodative, and Trump’s leadership style – clearly expansionistic, and analysing the impact that has on the Paris Agreement. It is found that leadership styles do in fact have an impact on environmental policy, but it cannot be fully understood without taking into consideration the perceptions and agendas of the leader in question. Further, more research needs to be done to make this theoretical framework reproduceable on a larger scale, since categorising leaders not scoring extreme values on the variables, such as Obama, are difficult to pinpoint.