Peter Drucker cites leadership research in his article in Psychology and states “management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” (All About Leadership, 2010). The number of countries that have supported the cause is a strong indication that people feel military action is ethically justified. Obama spoke to the UN General Assembly about a message to recreate the manner in which the wars on terror, conflict, climate and health. He spoke of the Ebola outbreak and Russia’s need to address Islamist militant threats within its borders. He used some flower words that are a hallmark of an Obama speech such as drawing distinctions between “fear and hope.”
Obama in his handling of the ISIS so far showed him to display not just good governance, but also good political leadership. When he did not believe that the Pentagon had a comprehensive plan to deal with the ISIS threat, he opted to wait until such a plan emerged before taking action and he was honest in an address to the American people that he was waiting until such a plan existed. Hsin-Yi Cohen in his essay on good political leaders writes that, “Political leaders are vitally important – through the author of government, they assess the distribution of power and resources, build relationships with other stakeholders and make decisions that can have a great impact on the well-being of a nation and its people” (Cohen, 1). As crises in The Middle East have shown before, if they are not correctly deal with they can lead to a larger problem in the future. This is in line with the vision that Obama put forward in front of delegates from 193 nations at the UN General Assembly. He told them “On issue after issue, we cannot rely on a rule-book written for a different century” (BBC, 2014).
BBC Analysis Nick Bryant agrees with Obama acting diplomatically strong in his fight against ISIS. He writes that “Nor is America acting alone. More than 50 nations will contribute to the fight against [the] Islamic State” (Bryan, 2014).
The impacts of this issue on society are significant. For the last decade, the world has been awake to the fact that there are real threats to the civilization as it is organized. From a sociological perspective, there is no blame to assign to these threats. There are outcomes to every set of changing societal circumstances. But wants problems such as ISIS emerge, doing nothing is no longer an option. What to do will either, help or hinder the threats posed by terror groups like ISIS. Most Americans and people in the West are not living in or near war zones. They live their lives with a relative degree of safety. The goal of these terror groups is to take the warzone to this safe area to create a curtain of fear in the West. How international government leadership addresses the issue will decide whether or not these ideological driven groups will succeed. While this issue has yet to resolve itself, most analyst seem to agree that Obama and the world leadership is working together to not just address the issue, but to make a strong statement to terrorist groups that they will not be able to hide behind borders of countries with weak central governments. Diplomacy is also what will be needed after the conflict is over. Through effective diplomacy, many instances of armed conflict can be avoided. Obama and the countries that are addressing this issue have already acted with repeated airstrikes against ISIS. Their hope is that their strategy is one that addresses the issue of ISIS and the ideologies fueling the existence of such terror groups.
References
A Political Leader. (n.d.). A Political Leader. Retrieved September 27, 2014, from http://www.leadershipexpert.co.uk/political-leader.html
Applebome, P. (1996). Dixie rising: how the South is shaping American values, politics and culture. New York: Times Books.
Obama sets out US leadership vision. (n.d.). BBC News. Retrieved September 27, 2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29349584
Weinschenk, Susan, and Ph.D.. "Leadership | Psychology Today."Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 June 2013. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/lea
