Lasting legacy : Nelson Mandela's evolution as a strategic leader

Lasting legacy: Nelson Mandela's evolution as a strategic leader

The life story of Nelson Mandela is well known, and elevated him to the level of such widely recognised heroes as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. There was indeed much courage, sacrifice, wisdom and nobility in his life -attributes that demand our deep respect and have much to teach us.

What is less well-known is how Mandela evolved into the kind of strategic leader who, from prisons on Robben Island and elsewhere, helped to bring genuine democracy to South Africa. For example, while isolated from his fellow prisoners by force, he steered secret government meetings toward the abolishment of apartheid and free elections. Subsequent to that, he became the country's first democratically elected black president.

Mandela's remarkable story holds valuable lessons for other leaders involved in deep struggles, foremost among which are the importance of holding firm to a morally just vision and the ability to influence a sequence of key strategic decisions over time (decades, in his case) in order to bring about truly remarkable results.

Three decisions especially stand out in Mandela's evolution as a strategic leader. To appreciate these fully, however, we need to understand some of the social and political contexts that shaped his career and values.

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Thought For The Day ( NATION )

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Gandhi Journal Article - II

Gandhi's world of peace

By Balamurali Balaji

Over many centuries, world civilization has witnessed countless instances of warfare, battles, and conflicts duly capable of employing the power of transmuting the human kind into forms what the emperors and rulers had never thought of. There existed peerless and rarest men among the human species who preached and practiced theories of peace that made the human race to evolve into a more enlightened genre living of what he is today on this planet.

Mahatma Gandhi is the greatest apostle of peace the world has seen after Buddha and Christ. His notion of peace is centered on nonviolence, individualism, soul force and forgiveness. At first glance, global peace initiatives might be perceived as far-flung methodologies that have wholly diverged from his ideologies. Many modern researchers and philosophers feel that today's conflicts are far more complex, so as their solutions. Global peace, global citizen, neo-modern trends and global issues have placed Gandhi at the backseat of the global forum.

But, there exists a fundamental correlation of what Gandhi had said and what the world is doing these days to combat violence and bring peace. This paper tries to find the relevance of Gandhi's dictum and how his ideologies can be put in current day’s global peace initiatives. It also traverses through various dimensions of peace one could think of in upholding global peace at micro, individualistic levels.

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