No one would dispute Nelson Mandela’s (1918-2013) expertise in leadership. In his 1994 autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, he offered a subtle analysis: Leadership, he believed, could be exercised from behind. “A leader,” he wrote, “is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”
Was it from Mandela that Barack Obama drew inspiration to introduce the notion of “leading from behind” into US foreign policy in 2011, a term that was popularized by an anonymous adviser in an interview with The New Yorker? We do not know, but the adviser in question regretted revealing the concept, given how much controversy it stirred up in conservative circles. How could the world’s leading power claim to “lead from behind” when its role was expected to be at the forefront?
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