Jimmy Carter Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Election of President Obama as the forty-four President of the United States of America in 2008 marked a crucial moment in history that calls for a new kind of leadership, capable of addressing complex, global challenges while holding fast to the timeless values that are essential to working of a good society. As the global civilisation develops, it is facing changes and novel challenges, so there is a need to hold to the imperatives that do not change, the foundations on which humans can build their lives despite the uncertainty of the future. Good, inspirational leadership can be compared to a lighthouse because it acts as a guiding light directing or navigating advanced societies to ensure survival, progress and prosperity. Such leadership requires the strength of character to rise above political divisions, conflicts and societal pressures in order to serve the common good of humanity. What we need most is to restore and revive our faith in humanity. We must create a society where people can live with dignity, a society where people can live in peace and happiness. Why America should be at the forefront of these actions. Because American power provides the indispensable basis for global stability today. The only alternative to it is global chaos. Therefore, the United States of America needs prudent, intelligent stewardship, or some kind of enlightened direction. One part of this type of guidance may be having an individual, possibly the President, who ingeniously solves problems, the so-called ‘transformational leader’. The scale of difficulty facing the President and his team is extremely high, because, from a global perspective, there are some serious, structural constraints on what actually President Obama can do. The idea introduced by Constructivism is that agency shapes and shoves the structure, so a capable leader could, first - attempt to convince the global public opinion of the scale of novel, global challenges, and then - attempt to solve them by enacting consequential policies that at its heart have the preservation of common global good. For our civilisation on Earth protecting the global commons must become the number one priority. The megatrends where civilisation needs immediate action are energy, food production, urbanisation, consumption and production. What civilisation needs is even more than that, we need science-based targets to support the global commons. And we need a new narrative for humanity as a global species in control of its long-term destiny, that is preservation of the global - common, public goods. Hope is that the worldview is shifting perceptibly towards planetary stewardship and responsible management of the global commons. To do that global leadership needs to recognise and accept the three essentials of leadership: 1) Humanity; 2) Clarity and 3) Courage. Humanely practising the virtues of the way promotes the influence of the teaching, pacifies this of both high and low positions and elites those who pass by. Someone with clarity follows proper behaviour and just duty, recognises what is safe and what is dangerous, examines people to see whether they are wise or foolish and distinguishes right and wrong. The courageous see things through to their conclusion settling them without doubt, they get rid of whatever is wrong or false. Humanity without clarity is like having a field, but not ploughing it, clarity without courage is like having sprouts but not weeding them, courage without humanity is like knowing how to reap but not how to sow. When all these are present the community thrives. When one is lacking the community deteriorates. When two are lacking the community is in peril. And when there is none of the three the way of leadership is in ruins. And reassuming and based on the above arguments, there is a role for capable global leaders. That is to say, ‘transformational’ leaders can change reality into positive outcomes. This can be accomplished through the normative power and the ability to change long-held identities and embedded practices thanks to their self-knowledge and thanks to a deep understanding of fellow civilisations. Ancient sages have provided many interesting maxims to guide peoples, nations and also organised humanity how to live in peace and harmony, how to build dialogue and cherish the value of peace. When leaders look carefully and study these guidelines they could find a common denominator. They could find a great way among the teachings of the sages, learn and practice civilisational understanding based on them. Clarity, humanity and courage are needed for any community to stay strong including the emerging climate community. In addition, as Israel (2018) noticed, "Every community needs to have values, and the world community is no exception to this rule." These values of the world community reflect the moral framework of our civilisation that most of us believe in and consider as the basis for human existence. These included human rights, religious pluralism, participatory governance, protection of the environment, poverty reduction, sustainable economic growth, elimination of weapons of mass destruction, prevention and cessation of conflict between countries, humanitarian assistance, and the preservation of the world’s cultural diversity (Israel, 2018). Doing what is right means protecting these values. Actions align with purpose, as opposed to doing what is desired, is a courageous act because global leaders need to exercise an enlightened interest in building a shared global community. When any individual or leader rises above circumstances by the power of courage, all conditions of life, however dark or grim become like the blanket of mist that disappears with the warm glance of the sun. The sorrows of the normal man are not inherent in the conditions of life. They are born out of the weaknesses of the human mind. So our global leaders must remember a ceaseless motto: "Try to awaken the sleeping hero in yourself, and no sorrow will defeat you and the world will open more windows of opportunity for you." For, example, as Nilsson (2016: 271) noted, "There is widespread agreement that science, technology and innovation (STI) have a role in helping countries tackle social challenges such as climate change, pollution and public health." Providing comprehensive solutions for these global and interconnected problems, however, exceeds the capacity of single states or market forces alone. There is a need to move beyond just governmental cooperation. As Nilsson continues, "By definition, Grand Challenges involve “a need to cooperate worldwide to create public goods (mitigation of climate change, health), or protect the global commons (the environment, fisheries)” (OECD, 2010: 165), calling for action that goes beyond the conventional role played by governments. For policy-makers, thus, the task is how to develop and align new policies and practices to address shared societal problems and enhance the impact of solutions to the problems of tomorrow. However, to do that our global leaders have to abandon egoism and abort luxury and materialism connected with their offices. Instead, they could focus on a bigger picture, on building a sustainable, modernising and vibrant civilisation. Their focus could be appreciating the needs of the younger generation which is evidently stirring. The last and catalytic step in the process of bottom-up climate diplomacy and the vision for building 'a whole earth economy' is the igniting of a broader, social movement of non-violent action that changes hearts, minds, and finally policies toward the right, symbiotic relationship between humanity and the Earth. Young people from all corners of the globe can feel more empowered and show an example of climate diplomacy. Any young leader who would like to implement wider, social change must be a champion of it. If you would like change to be successful, you must lead people towards it. Intelligent leadership is hard to execute because everyone likes progress but no one likes change. ''The global economy today is overwhelming the ability of the earth to maintain life’s abundance.'' (Garver and Brown, 2009). A new mass movement is needed that bears witness to a right way of living on our finite, life-giving planet. The key is giving the world hope that generational challenges such as climate change are no match for people who believe there is no problem we cannot solve together. Think about how our civilisation would look like when next generation of leaders such as Greta Thunberg would become more empowered? Older leaders would have to abort low politics, tribalism and putting their nations first. These are the values reminiscent of the era of rivalry and colonisation. But these long-held identities can be changed thanks to diplomacy, charisma, heroic, ethical and ‘transformational’ leadership that acts primarily through the smart power of dialogue, exchanging ideas, respect and kindness.