Operational code has been used as a tool to evaluate leaders’ views of international politics. Nathan Leites (1951) conducted the first operational code analysis to determine how the Bolsheviks approached international conflict by analyzing their belief systems.Hired by the Rand Corporation, Leites (1951) sought to explain Soviet bargaining behavior, which perplexed Western policy makers.n turn, Walker et al. (1998, p. 2) defined a leader’s operational code “as a set of alternative states of mind,” which permits the operational code construct more flexibility in its research applications. As a result, Walker et al.