Welcome to my academic journey!

 This paper delves into the link between the personality traits of political leaders and their choices in selecting chief government members. To accomplish this, the leadership profiles of three former U.S. presidents were analyzed to determine their leadership styles. The purpose of this analysis is to provide insights into the workings of the president’s Cabinet and to explain why some political leaders have higher rates of turnover in their administration members than others. The paper contends that while the personality of leaders is not the only factor accounting for higher or lower turnover in their respective Cabinets, leadership traits play a crucial role in understanding why specific leaders often replace certain members in their administration with new appointments. By understanding how personality traits impact decision-making in political leadership, researchers and policymakers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the factors that contribute to effective governance.

How do major geopolitical crises reshape international alliance patterns? This study proposes a crisis-induced parallel activation model to explain how the Russo-Ukrainian conflict—from the 2014 annexation of Crimea through 2022—transformed global diplomatic alignments. Using United Nations General Assembly voting data from 193 member states, social network analysis, hierarchical clustering, k-medoids clustering, and cosine similarity measures with qualitative analysis of key resolutions across four temporal periods (2011-2022) were employed.

The analysis reveals three simultaneous mechanisms rather than uniform responses predicted by single theories. First, democratic institutional reinforcement strengthened Western alliance cohesion, with NATO and EU members demonstrating enhanced coordination through shared values and institutional frameworks. Second, challenger tactical coordination produced selective Russia-China alignment on specific issues while maintaining strategic separation across most policy domains. Third, non-aligned strategic autonomy enabled Global South states to gain diplomatic centrality by avoiding forced alignment with competing blocs.

These findings demonstrate that crises activate multiple alignment mechanisms simultaneously across different state categories, challenging traditional alliance theories that assume uniform responses. The parallel activation model advances alliance theory by explaining how the same geopolitical shock can simultaneously strengthen institutional bonds, enable tactical coordination, and enhance strategic autonomy, providing new insights into contemporary multipolar diplomacy.

This study examines how U.S. democracy promotion under the Biden administration has inadvertently contributed to global polarization, undermining U.S. hegemony in a rapidly evolving multipolar world. It proposes the Polarization-Induced Power Erosion (PIPE) theory, which argues that dividing the world into democratic and non-democratic camps has strengthened counter-hegemonic alliances (e.g., Russia-China cooperation), accelerated regionalization (e.g., BRICS, SCO), and overextended U.S. resources in managing conflicts in regions like Eastern Europe and East Asia. Using a mixed-methods approach, including case studies of the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s influence in Africa, as well as quantitative analysis of alliance shifts and trade patterns, the study highlights how ideological polarization undermines global stability and long-term U.S. strategic interests. This research offers a critical reassessment of democracy promotion strategies, contributing to debates on U.S. foreign policy and international order.