The essence of great leadership

It is about rising above pride. Pride and anger are not the only game in town

- AJAY SHAH

Most of us have settled into a warm cynicism about governments. We expect the regime to act through a combination of pride and nationalism. So we think, of course the Iranian government will hit back, of course the Iranian government will try to rival Israel's military power, of course the regime will continue on the slog of trying to get to nuclear weapons.

By doing this, we sign on to the interests of the regime. There is a small matter of the interests of the people. The essential insight of political science and international relations is the distinction between the principal and the agent, the distinction between the interests of the people vs the interests of the regime.

The pursuit of pride and nationalism by the Khamenei regime has brought disaster for the Iranian people. It does not have to be like this. The right strategy for Iran is to settle into 50 years of becoming a normal country, of getting away from state violence against the people, of building the society and the economy, of becoming a normal country that engages with the world in the normal ways of well-behaved countries. That would build a great country, which is in the interests of the people.

Great leaders are those that rise above narrow considerations of face, of regime stability, of ideology, to do things that are in the interests of the people. There are many such examples in history.