ABSTRACT
This chapter examines diplomacy and bad leaders. The first section begins by considering the dangers of using a term like bad, before examining three different ways in which the term is customarily used in terms of moral content, professional competence, and consequences for others. The second section of the chapter then examines the record of three major international leaders about whom people often worry: American President Donald Trump; Russian President Vladimir Putin; and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Are they bad leaders and, if so, in what sense? The third and final section of the chapter then examines what diplomacy can tell us about bad leaders. Bad leaders are not new. Indeed, they are a big reason for why diplomacy developed. Diplomats worry about badness in terms of competence, and worry about their own leaders as much as the leaders of other states in these terms. Bad leaders cannot always be stopped, but when persuasion fails, diplomats attempt to moderate their worst consequences by three strategies: ignoring; containing; and exploiting them. If these fail, they may resort to direct opposition.
