Scholars of Franjo Tudjman have advanced competing interpretations of just who the
Croatian leader was. Much of the research on Croatia’s first president has, understandably,
focused on his role in the unfolding of the crisis in former Yugoslavia from 1990-1995 (Kaplan
1991; Banac 1992, 1993; Glenny 1992, 1999; Kearns 1996, Rados 2005; Ramet 2005). There is
broad agreement that Franjo Tudjman played a significant role in the way crisis unfolded in the
former Yugoslavia from 1990-1995. However, our understanding of Tudjman and the role he
played in international politics is still limited. On key points, interpretations of him vary.
Therefore it is useful to engage in a systematic analysis in an attempt to clarify the role he played
in Croatian and European politics.
The primary purpose of this paper is to assess Franjo Tudjman’s world view. Through
measuring it in a systematic way, we may be able to determine how it affected foreign policy
behavior. Whether it varied in ways that match the choices and changes in Croatia’s behavior
may help us to assess the degree to which Croatia’s foreign policy was the result of its powerful
president’s desires, or if, instead, it resulted from other political influences. In measuring
Tudjman’s belief system, this paper utilizes operational code analysis (Walker, Schafer and
Young 1998). Operational code analysis has been used to measure leaders’ core foreign policy
beliefs for many years, and conceives of an individual’s foreign policy world view as the product
of answers to a basic set of questions about the nature and valence of political behavior. These
include: What is the essential nature of political life? What are the prospects of realizing one’s
core values? Does one have the power to shape the world around them? Is policy most
effectively pursued through cooperation or conflict? The answers to such questions touch on
one’s basic understanding of the political world, how one wishes to interact with it, and the
specific types of moves a leader is likely to pursue in the international arena.
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Convention