What are the attributes, self-belief apart, we should reasonably look for in choosing political leaders?
AAP/Dean Lewins
Self-belief is an obvious given for anyone aspiring to political leadership. But there are ten other qualities that distinguish the most successful leaders from the rest.
Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons, megalomaniac? Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones © 2019 Home Box Office, Inc.
Some lessons from leadership theory for anyone aspiring to sit on the Iron Throne.
Kaiser Wilhelm II and one of his generals in 1914.
PA Archive
A toxic mix of wishful thinking, brinksmanship, finger-pointing, and fatalism in July 1914 bear similarities to Brexit.
Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio has made fighting rape a priority.
EPA-EFE/Ernest Henry
Sierra Leone has declared a national emergency to combat rape and sexual violence.
EPA/Neil Hall
Faced with an intractable problem, bravery is needed. Instead, the only thing on offer is playground politics.
Canada’s Minister of the Status of Women Maryam Monsef is pictured in the Library of Parliament on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Feb. 28, 2018.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick)
New research shows that female politicians spend more on health and education, improving the well-being of a population.
South Africa is struggling to eradicate poverty.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Despite a relatively slow start, South Africa can speed up its implementation of the SDGs.
ANC members show their support for party leader and president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.
Brenton Geech/EPA-EFE
The problem with South Africa’s governing ANC, is that to many of its members, politics is not about public service but about resources.
Greg Hunt’s temperament is of the “street-angel, house-devil” type.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The voters are like sniffer dogs when it comes to character – if that hadn’t been the case Mark Latham might have won the 2004 election.
The funeral of Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama.
EPA-EFE/Ricardo Franco
The death of Mozambican opposition leader Alfonso Dhlakama could affect the progress made to end hostilities in the country.
Dumped waste is a constant eyesore on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub.
African News Agency Archives (ANA)
Littering in protest is indicative of a discordant society, and a culture of littering can tell us a lot about a society’s ethos.
South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa needs to formulate a long term strategy for economic growth with an eye on the 2019 elections.
GCIS
Both the state of the nation address and budget speech didn’t leave a sense that there has been much reflection on the depth of the economic malaise gripping South Africa.
Morgan Tsvangirai built the Movement for Democratic Change into a formidable party and credible contender for power at its height.
EPA/Aaron Ufumeli
Despite spirited efforts to douse the flames of infighting within the MDC-T, matters came to a head at a recent rally in Chitungwiza.
Prime Minister Bob Hawke celebrates the final cabinet meeting in Old Parliament House, 1988.
National Archives of Australia
A new ABC documentary presents a nostalgic but compelling overview of one of Australia’s most successful prime ministers.
Colin Barnett has rejected calls for him to step down as an MP.
AAP
Should defeated party leaders stay in parliament? Former Western Australian premier Colin Barnett is an interesting case in point.
Over time, the Kim family has become adept at coup-proofing its rule in North Korea.
Reuters/KCNA
We should interpret the threat posed by North Korea from an informed perspective based on demonstrable strategic logic, rather than on caricatured misrepresentations of its leadership.
The majority of working Australians drive to and from work.
AAP/Dan Himbrechts
Australians are crying out for political leadership. One way our leaders can redeem themselves is by getting to work on a complete shake-up of how we pay for and use transport infrastructure.
In jettisoning Alfred Deakin, the Liberals made a great mistake and showed the thinness of their historical memory.
National Library of Australia
Like Malcolm Turnbull, the three-time prime minister Alfred Deakin was sometimes accused of lacking substance, but he had core political commitments from which he never wavered.
Like its Tasmanian predecessor, the marriage plebiscite has been engineered by the leader’s intransigent opponents.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Malcolm Turnbull’s postal plebiscite on marriage equality is on the cusp of recreating the mistakes of Doug Lowe’s Tasmanian dams plebiscite.
South Korea’s subtly calibrated risk aversion in the face of outrageous North Korean aggression has kept the two countries from war.
EPA/KCNA
An aggressive posture is one thing – but doing something about it is another, as countries factor in the costs and risks of aggression.