Predatory Leadership

How Weak Leadership Brought Crises to the Global Community

How did we ever reach the point of nearly 900,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US, 5.5 million worldwide and a climate crisis that now affects 85% of the global population, yet goes largely unchallenged?

The pandemic and climate crises are only part of a network of crises that coalesced about 50 years ago with roots going back 400 years. This network seems to have agency, a life of its own, travelling to where it will thrive and flourish, that is, where leadership is weakest and inequalities starkest.

Raging within this network are fires, hurricanes, droughts, and flooding, rising levels of migration, tribalism, racism, economic disparities, fear, and anger. Social trust and democratic institutions are weakening. This reader examines the culpability of national leaders such as former President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnston, former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and a range of others across the globe.

Based on decades of field research in remote villages and capital cities of Latin America, Africa and Asia, Dr. Chris Simms unearths evidence of the powerful preying on the powerless while tapping their resources and ignoring their needs. He describes today's struggle in North America and Europe, between science and ideology, and between public health and economic values. He describes the continued influence of Trump with a sense of foreboding. ·

This reader consists of articles drawn from publications that the author produced over the last 20 years. About half of these articles have appeared in the Lancet or the BMJ in various forms but mainly as opinion pieces. Others are drawn from publications supported by NGOs such as Christian Aid, Action Aid, and Save the Children while others have been published in the Guardian newspaper, Institute of Development Studies (UK), and journals such as the International Journal of Clinical Practice, the CMAJ, Canadian Journal of Public Health, New England Journal of Medicine, and the American Psychologist.

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