By ensuring that both our past and present are taken into consideration, world-leading scholars and writers investigate how ideas of leadership have evolved through history.

Machiavelli's observation on the fine margins of leadership remains as true in our perilous age of renewed military, economic and cultural conflict, as it did in 16th-century Florence. The rise of China, Russia's attack on Ukraine and the growing political and economic presence of the Global South have actualised the issue of the importance of competent leadership within governance.

This anthology explores the complications of leadership and statecraft in an increasingly complex world and asks: Can we create political elites that are capable of safely guiding the West through the many challenges we face? Looking into the past as well as the present, leading scholars and writers examine how the ideas of leadership have developed through history to give us a greater understanding of the art of statecraft - the skills and organisations required to run small states, vast empires and everything in between.