Freedom's Philosopher Blogspot

 In case you haven't followed recent media coverage, President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to invade, neighboring, Ukraine by bombing cities and killing thousands of civilians. Survivors migrated to other nearby countries, especially Poland. Critics noted that deliberately bombing cities violates the principles of Just War Theory , and that Putin is therefore a war criminal. Although Ukraine is not a member, the European Union has been sending humanitarian and military hardware aid to Ukraine. Recently, V olodomyr Zylenskyy, duly elected President of Ukraine,  Zelenskyy traveled to the United States seeking more military hardware, especially aircraft and missiles, to help enforce a no-fly-zone over those land areas that the Russians have been using launch to bombers and missiles. In sum, Putin's invasion raises complex leadership puzzles for Joe Biden and the various leaders within the European Union. Should the European Union and/or the United State intervene mili...

 In the next two blogs I will introduce several philosophical concepts intended to elucidate the nature and nurture organizational leadership theory: organizations, political organizations, hierarchies, leaders/followers, dominance/submission, and totalitarian/democratic regimes. PART I. will explain the basics of organizational leadership theory. PART II. I will then apply that body of theory to evaluate the leadership of Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy and in the context of Russia's bombing of Ukraine.  T here are m any animal species that naturally collectively "organize themselves" hierarchically, based on  leadership  and  followership.    All organizations serve ends or purposes, therefore, we evaluate them based on how  effective  those organizations are at achieving those specified goals, and how  efficient  those organizations are at fulfilling them. Similarly, organizational hierarchies are organized bas...

  Recent events in Ukraine underscore the importance of Leadership Theory in making sense of the ever-changing landscape of leader-follower relationships. First of all, it is essential that we acknowledge that there are two forms of "sociopolitical integration:" Vertical Integration and Horizontal Integration.  Both organizational schemas are are found throughout nature. Vertical Integration is evident in sociopolitical contexts where organizations are that organized top to bottom, where one leader (or a few leaders) exercise power from the top down. Followers embrace leaders for a variety of reasons. Transactional leaders rise to power and maintain power via bribery: If you support me I will give you X... Positive Leader-follower Transactions usually involve sharing power and/or resources (usually money). Negative Leader-Follower Transactions involve threats: If you do not support me I will harm you and/or your followers. Thus, longstanding political leaders like Putin ...

        I have written several blogs on "Just War Theory."  (https://freedomsphilosopher.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-ethics-of-war.html).  In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, I thought it would be useful to explore the larger questions of whether human leadership and human warfare are natural behaviors passed on to subsequent generations through our genetic inheritance; or whether those behaviors are learned and therefore passed on over time via teaching and learning (culture). And, in light of those findings, I will speculate whether the quest for global peace a realistic sociopolitical goal.            Like all human institutions, the history of human warfare reveals varying degrees of cultural evolution, devolution, and/or stability over time. We know that warlike behavior has taken place throughout much of human history. There is evidence that groups of Hunters and Gatherers rarely (if ev...