ABSTRACT
Leadership is no longer limited to states or states’ policymakers. Leaders should have the capacity to transform the objectives into realities, and leadership needs a relationship “between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow”. International organizations, private sector representatives, heads of non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations, and even individuals other than politicians may be the leaders of today’s world as long as they can set direction and develop a vision, influence the creation of coalitions and partnerships, and achieve their vision through strategic plans. The European Union (EU) has several ongoing operations, civilian and military in nature, in the continent. The failure of the Union to act in the Balkan theatre at the end of the 1990s was a wake-up call, bringing French and British authorities together in St. Malo to advance the creation of a European security and defence policy, including a European military force capable of autonomous action.
