IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v108y2014i01p40-53_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Transforming Power Relationships: Leadership, Risk, and Hope

Author

Listed:
  • READ, JAMES H.
  • SHAPIRO, IAN

Abstract

Chronic communal conflicts often embody prisoner's dilemmas. Both communities prefer peace to war. Yet neither trusts the other, viewing the other's gain as its loss, so potentially shared interests often go unrealized. Achieving positive-sum outcomes from apparently zero-sum struggles requires a particular kind of risk-embracing leadership. To succeed leaders must (a) see power relations as potentially positive-sum, (b) strengthen negotiating adversaries when tempted to weaken them, and (c) demonstrate hope for a positive future and take great personal risks to achieve it. Such leadership is exemplified by Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk in the South African democratic transition. To illuminate the strategic dilemmas Mandela and de Klerk faced, we examine the work of Robert Axelrod, Thomas Schelling, and Josep Colomer, who highlight important dimensions of the problem but underplay the role of risk-embracing leadership. Finally we discuss leadership successes and failures in the Northern Ireland settlement and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Read, James H. & Shapiro, Ian, 2014. "Transforming Power Relationships: Leadership, Risk, and Hope," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 108(1), pages 40-53, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:108:y:2014:i:01:p:40-53_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S000305541300066X/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cristine de Clercy & Peter Ferguson, 2016. "Leadership in Precarious Contexts: Studying Political Leaders after the Global Financial Crisis," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(2), pages 104-114.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:108:y:2014:i:01:p:40-53_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.