ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the key trends that pose problems for the strategic leader, many of which are derived from the particular nature of the strategic environment. The strategic leader sinks or swims in a strategic sea. Although few leaders will be entirely isolated from the day-to-day business that affects as men and women, the capacity to generate or inspire strategic vision, and to take the key decisions that mark a strategic leader, must be applied to a context that sits well the humdrum. Trade and economic interdependencies, together with traditional security concerns, always have been drivers for a functional system of international relations. The technology that has granted immediacy of communication, access to near-infinite information resources and a 24/7 media culture has presented the strategic leader with crucial challenges. The future nature and role of the state is probably the most weighty background issue facing strategic leadership, the more immediate challenge is likely to be that of ‘friction’.
