Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Maybe the Free World Doesn't Need a Leader

Consensus-building might seem boring and weak, but it could yield better results.

December 19, 2017 at 5:57 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

World leaders?
Photographer: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

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Who is the leader of the free world? Important as the question sounds, I'm beginning to wonder if it's better left unanswered.

The U.S. president is no longer the obvious choice. Even the new U.S. National Security Strategy, filled with bombastic statements such as "the whole world is lifted by America’s renewal and the reemergence of American leadership," acknowledges growing competition among powers. And of course "America first" is the slogan of a national, not a global, leader.