No one will dispute in Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) the expertise of leadership. In his autobiography, A long path to freedom (Fayard, 1995), he delivered an analysis of it in finesse: leadership, according to him, can be exercised from the back. “A leader is like a shepherdhe writes. He remains behind the herd, leaves the most agile in front of the others, without realizing that they are directed from the rear. »»
Is it in Mandela that Barack Obama drew inspiration to introduce from American foreign policy in 2011, the notion of “leadership from the rear”, popularized under the expression “Leading from Behind” by an anonymous advisor in an interview with New Yorker ? It is unclear, but the advisor in question has bitten his fingers for having revealed the concept as it raised controversy in conservative circles. How could the leading world power boast of “directing from the back”, whose role could only be in mind?
The case concerned Libya, where Barack Obama, elected president three years earlier on the promise to draw his country from the Afghan and Iraqi quagmills, had imagined this limited intervention device, in coalition, to protect the Libyan population threatened with mass massacre by Colonel Mouammar Gaddafi, confronted since February 15 with a popular dispute echoing the neighboring demonstrations of Egypt and Tunisia, cradle of “Arab Spring”.
Objective, free Washington for its priority: Asia
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Source: Lemonde