[Editorial] Hope for leadership: introduction to the special issue “Leadership and the future of humanity”

This is an introduction to the Special Issue ‘Leadership and the Future of Humanity.’ We appraise the concept of leadership in the context of several major world crises, including the rise of populism, an increased number of conflicts, and the climate crisis. In observing the current conflicts in Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Palestine, we define hopeless leadership as the leadership of those who exploit despair and uncertainty to manufacture fear in order to move their followers into action against particular outgroups. We also look at how hope is often born from despair. In adopting Freire’s ontology of hope, we theorise hopeful leadership as the continuous belief in, and search for possible and better futures, even if they are imperfect. In this sense, hopeful leadership has a strong element of stewardship towards the future of humanity. The Special Issue contains papers that tap into these themes, and develops them in their own way.<p></p>