This week we look at political courage from several different perspectives – citizen courage, the courage to go into politics, and courage in political leadership.

1. Jackson Institute for Global Affairs
Courage in
Theory & Practice
Roz Savage

2. Main Points So Far
❖ Trajectory of courageous life vs average life
❖ Courage is not the absence of fear, but feeling the fear
and doing it anyway
❖ When Motivation > Fear => COURAGE
❖ Courage (and just about everything else) is a function of
the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are
❖ Developing courage is a dance between what we
choose and the challenges life gives us

3. What words spring to mind in
connection with “politics”?

4. Politics - A Joke?
“Politics is the art of
looking for trouble, finding
it everywhere, diagnosing
it incorrectly, and applying
the wrong remedies.”
— Groucho Marx

6. Week 11: Political Courage
❖ Political courage as a citizen
❖ Political courage as an NGO or international
organisation
❖ Political courage as a leader
❖ The courage to go into politics
❖ Courage once in office

7. How to win a Nobel Peace
Prize
❖ Commitment to a cause
❖ Tenacity
❖ Ability to develop and
mobilize networks
❖ Clarity of thought and
articulacy of communication
❖ Practicality
❖ Ability to operate within a
political context

8. Citizen Courage (Scorza)
Courage of
conscientious
citizens
Courage of
patriotic
citizens
Courage of
pragmatic
leaders
Loyalty
Moral
scruples
Commo
n good
Engage-
ment
Blind
loyalty
Fanatici
sm
Com-
promise

9. Government and Citizens
❖ Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821)
❖ “Toute nation a le
gouvernement qu'elle mérite.”
❖ “Every nation gets the
government it deserves.”
❖ "In a democracy people get the
leaders they deserve.”

10. Is this true?

11. Week 11: Political Courage
❖ Political courage as a citizen
❖ Political courage as an NGO or international
organisation
❖ Political courage as a leader
❖ The courage to go into politics
❖ Courage once in office

12. NGOs and UN
❖ Argue from principles
❖ Use publicity, rather than be used by it
❖ Persistence and determination
❖ Great opportunities, greatly met - be both cautious and bold
❖ Patience
❖ Political insight - read the political tea-leaves - be politically
wise without becoming politically tainted
❖ Knowledge
❖ Realism - focus on what you can control, ignore what you can’t

13. Week 11: Political Courage
❖ Political courage as a citizen
❖ Political courage as an NGO or international
organisation
❖ Political courage as a leader
❖ The courage to go into politics
❖ Courage once in office

14. A Thankless Task?
“On the day you’re elected,
you’re at your most popular
and least competent.
On the day they kick you
out, you’re at your least
popular and most
competent.”
— Tony Blair

15. A Thankless Task?
Winston Churchill Margaret Thatcher

17. Zac Goldsmith
❖ Conservative MP, formerly editor
of The Ecologist magazine
❖ Promised his constituents he
would resign if Heathrow third
runway was approved (less
environmental, more noise
pollution/quality of life)
❖ Third runway was approved, he
resigned, forcing a by-election
❖ He stood as an independent,
rather than Conservative
❖ Suffered overwhelming defeat

18. Abraham Lincoln James Garfield
William McKinley John F. Kennedy

19. Gabby Giffords
❖ Born 1970
❖ Elected to US Congress (Dem,
Arizona) in 2007
❖ Married to Space Shuttle
commander Mark Kelly
❖ Shot in the head 2011 while
meeting publicly with
constituents (6 killed)
❖ Left with severe brain injury

20. Jo Cox (1974-2016)
❖ First member of her family to
go to university
❖ Pembroke College, Cambridge,
and London School of
Economics
❖ Elected as Labour MP in May
2015
❖ Shot and stabbed by man with
far-right affiliations, June 2016

21. A Feminist Issue?

22. US: Share of Elective Offices

24. UK: Women MPs and
Candidates
“Blair’s Babes”

27. What would make you go into
politics?
Or what would stop you going
into politics?

28. Week 11: Political Courage
❖ Political courage as a citizen
❖ Political courage as an NGO or international
organisation
❖ Political courage as a leader
❖ The courage to go into politics
❖ Courage once in office

29. –James Callaghan
“A leader must have the courage to act against an
expert’s advice.”

30. Is Courage Desirable?
❖ Combative
❖ Aggressive
❖ Bellicose
❖ Dogmatic
❖ Rigid
❖ Egotistical
❖ Isolationist
❖ Principled
❖ Assertive
❖ Decisive
❖ Morally courageous
❖ Determined
❖ Independent
❖ Patriotic

31. Nelson Mandela
❖ Imprisoned for life in 1964 for
conspiring to overthrow the
state
❖ ANC was a terrorist
organisation, killed 71 people
between 1976 and 1984

32. Nelson Mandela
“Friends, comrades and fellow
South Africans. I greet you all in
the name of peace, democracy
and freedom for all! I stand here
before you not as a prophet but
as a humble servant of you, the
people. Your tireless and heroic
sacrifices have made it possible
for me to be here today. I
therefore place the remaining
years of my life in your hands.”

33. How are politicians judged?
To what extent are they
products of their times?

35. John F Kennedy
“Our political life is becoming so
expensive, so mechanized and
so dominated by professional
politicians and public relations
men that the idealist who dreams
of independent statesmanship is
rudely awakened by the
necessities of election and
accomplishment.”

36. Barack Obama
“As president you’re held
responsible for everything,
but you don’t always have
control of everything.”

37. Political Decision-Making
Long Term
Short Term
PrinciplesPragmatism

38. Pressures on Courage (JFK)
Desire to be
liked by public
and
colleagues
Desire to be
re-elected
Role as
representative
of
constituency
Financia
l support
Loyalty
to party
Best
interests
of state
Best
interests
of USA
Individual
conscien
ce
Com-
promise

39. Robert A. Taft
❖ After World War II, many Nazi leaders
were put on trial as war criminals by an
international tribune
❖ During the Nuremberg Trials, 11 Nazis
were found guilty under an indictment for
"waging an aggressive war" and
sentenced to death
❖ Popular verdict in US
❖ Taft believed it to be an act of vengeance,
compromising US and European justice
systems
❖ He chose to speak out, and was branded
a Nazi sympathiser by both parties

40. Daniel Webster
❖ "Not as a Massachusetts man, nor as
a Northern man but as an
American…"
❖ Supported the compromise of 1850,
which included the Fugitive Slave Law
of 1850 that required federal officials
to recapture and return runaway
slaves
❖ Even though it went against his own
beliefs, trying to avoid Civil War
❖ Resigned under a cloud later that
year, never regained popularity

41. It has been said that recent
politics in US and UK have
been fear-based.
Do you agree? Why?
What would courage-based
politics look like?

42. Political Will and Climate
Change
❖ Long term issue - not suited to
short term electoral cycles
❖ Perceived as requiring short term
sacrifice
❖ Unpopular with workers in carbon
industries
❖ Unpopular with many voters who
have high carbon lifestyles
❖ Unpopular with climate change
deniers
❖ Ultimate tragedy of the commons

43. Political Will and Climate
Change
“Whether we or our politicians
know it or not, Nature is party to
all our deals and decisions, and
she has more votes, a longer
memory, and a sterner sense of
justice than we do.”
— Wendell Berry

44. Political Will and Climate
Change
“The United Nations is our
one great hope for a peaceful
and free world.”
— Ralph Bunche
(American diplomat)
“You can safely appeal to the
United Nations in the
comfortable certainty that it
will let you down.”
— Conor Cruise O’Brien
(Irish politician)

45. Salty Old Sea Story #260:
President Anote Tong of
Kiribati

55. M

56. Copenhagen, 2009
“We keep asking the
international community to act
and to give more focus to our
part of the world because
you’ve done this to us and
what are you going to do
about it? I’ve been waiting for
an answer quite some time
and we are running out of
time.”
— Anote Tong