1 - The Place of Ethical Leadership, Virtues, and Narrative in International Organizations

Summary

International organizations (IOs) were once expected to guarantee the ‘salvation of mankind’ but have increasingly come to be questioned. On the one hand, waves of populism, nationalism and isolationism threaten the stability of the international legal order and the capacity of IOs to address policy dilemmas. On the other hand, these policy dilemmas keep piling up – for example, the influx of refugees, climate change, global health issues, cyber wars, growing inequality and widespread poverty. It appears that what is needed are more global cooperation and leadership, at a time when the mission and capacities of IOs may be at risk. Compounding the problem, the latter are also often accused of corruption, embezzlement, negative externalities, political capture, poor and immoral performance and so on.