The Eyes of Kesteven: How the Worldviews of Margaret Thatcher and Her Cabinet Influenced British Foreign Policy

Abstract

Operational code analysis has been a useful tool for examining the influential linkages that exist between the fundamental foreign policy beliefs of individual leaders and their behavior in international affairs. This literature has undergone refinements in recent years, and the development of new methods for carrying out this work has enabled much more rigorous and detailed studies to be done in this area. Nonetheless, pertinent research questions remain for those of us interested in the sources of foreign policy, and the recent advances in this research agenda should make it a fertile field of inquiry for some time to come.

Margaret Thatcher’s official title is now Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven.