Following in Diogenes' footsteps.
Speaking recently at the United Nations General Assembly on the 'priorities for 2023', the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres made a passionate speech about the existential challenges currently facing humanity, including deadly conflicts, extreme poverty, widening economic inequalities and climate crisis in relation to the capacity of present-day leadership. He concluded that politicians and decision-makers across the world suffer from the lack of strategic visioning and long-term thinking, hampering their abilities to handle these challenges. The Secretary General lamented the tendency of 'preference for the present' and 'near-term thinking' in the leaders, which he said was 'irresponsible' and 'immoral'.
Mr Guterres has a reputation of being both, articulate and vocal about the issues of human rights. His briefing at the General Assembly was a stark reminder that statesmanship everywhere in the world was becoming more elusive than ever.
The speech by the Secretary General had a sense of deja vu about it.
Some nine years ago, similar views were echoed in the 'Strategic Survey' of the year 2013, compiled by the London-based think tank, International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The survey contended that political leaders across various domains preferred to act tactically rather than resorting to the strategic approach in face of the constant flux which describes the world today. Small wonder, the report predicted the next year, i.e. 2014, as another one of 'living tactically', which it was, as were all the subsequent years. Ironically, a number of political leaders which earned much notoriety for their extraordinary 'myopia' in the later years were yet to take the centre stage when the IISS Strategic Survey was published.
The two assessments cited above, though nine years apart, are strikingly similar in their verdict on the stark absence of strategy and statesmanship on the manner in which most leaders conduct their business. The consequence of their narrow vision is evident from the plethora of challenges faced by mankind as also mentioned by Secretary General Guterres. A more pertinent question, however, relates to the underlying reasons which are contributing to the waning skills of statesmanship.
In the last chapter of his latest book, 'Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy', Henry Kissinger, a former US Secretary of State, attempted to answer this question. He points to the emergence of a 'visual culture' which...
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