Dealers in Hope? Leadership in the Russia-Ukraine War

Napoleon once said that leaders are "dealers in hope." While such a label might seem to fit Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelensky, it fits more awkwardly on Russian President Vladimir Putin. How has the leadership of these two men shaped the onset and current progress of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Would the invasion have happened at all, or if had happened would it have progressed differently under different leadership? These are the fundamental questions addressed in this week's Horns of a Dilemma. Texas National Security Review Executive Editor Doyle Hodges is joined by Brown University Professor (and member of the TNSR Editorial Board) Rose McDermott to discuss political psychology, leadership, and the war in Ukraine.  This discussion ranges from the origins, strengths, and limits of political psychology to analysis of the leaders involved in the conflict to literary criticism of two great Russian novels.  Professor McDermott is also a contributor to a new book from Cornell University Press, The Fragile Balance of Terror: Deterrence in the New Nuclear Age