IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v69y2025i2-3p321-351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Right-Wing Populist Leaders, Nationalist Rhetoric, and Dispute Initiation in International Politics

Author

Listed:
  • Minnie M. Joo
  • Brandon Bolte
  • Nguyen Huynh
  • Vineeta Yadav
  • Bumba Mukherjee

Abstract

The global rise of right-wing populist (RWP) leaders has raised concerns about the threat they pose to a cooperative international order, but there is little systematic evidence linking RWP leaders to military aggression. Are RWP leaders more prone to initiating international disputes? If so, when and why? We argue that a RWP leader’s hyper-nationalist rhetoric can galvanize popular support for militant internationalism, but this only leads to pressures for the leader to follow through on their belligerent rhetoric by initiating international disputes in participatory democracies. Using survey experiments fielded in India and Japan, we find strong support for our claims about the effects of RWP rhetoric on civilian attitudes. Statistical results from original data on populist leaders worldwide (1886-2014) then show that RWP leaders in participatory democracies are more likely to initiate militarized disputes. Our results are troubling given the recent increase in RWP leaders elected in participatory democracies.

Suggested Citation

  • Minnie M. Joo & Brandon Bolte & Nguyen Huynh & Vineeta Yadav & Bumba Mukherjee, 2025. "Right-Wing Populist Leaders, Nationalist Rhetoric, and Dispute Initiation in International Politics," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 69(2-3), pages 321-351, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:69:y:2025:i:2-3:p:321-351
    DOI: 10.1177/00220027241247041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027241247041
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00220027241247041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:69:y:2025:i:2-3:p:321-351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.