Whoever wins the U.S. presidential election in November will be confronted with a country still bitterly divided. Many feel a sense of hopelessness and fear for the future, just as they sear over past injustices. But there are glimmers of solutions that can be effected through transformational leadership. The author, who ran a program at Oxford University that assembled and built “unlikely coalitions” among more than 1,000 current and prospective public leaders from more than 100 countries, offers lessons from two efforts in Nigeria and Brazil to build bridges and reduce political tensions and violence.
The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on July 13 brought back to Americans the gut-wrenching political violence that marred the country in the turbulent and polarizing 1960s. Electoral violence is also all too common in other parts of the world — voting seasons this year in India, Mexico, and Pakistan have been tarnished by violence.
