The clock is ticking down to the August 31 deadline the Biden administration set for U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan. And although American allies have been pressing him to extend that timeline, Pentagon officials reiterated that troops will be out by the end of the month. Despite worsening conditions in Afghanistan, a worsening pandemic across the nation, and worsening poll numbers over his handling of it all, President Joe Biden remains resolute. What does it say about his leadership and how he may handle more adversity ahead?
Adam Reilly, in for Jim Braude on Greater Boston, was joined by Gautam Mukunda, Harvard Kennedy School fellow, host of NASDAQ's "World Reimagined" podcast, and author of “Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter,” and Tina Opie, visiting scholar at Harvard Business School and founder of Opie Consulting Group, to discuss.
Opie explained that leaders must often decisions that are unappealing to constituents in the moment — but Biden could have communicated his decision more astutely.
“I think that he has made quite a few gaffes and that these gaffes could actually have a huge detrimental effect on Afghan citizens, as well as people from around the world and U.S. citizens,” she said. “One of the things Biden may have gotten wrong is, at least from a media perspective, it didn’t look as though he did a good job of gathering alternative perspectives and approaches from diverse stakeholders. He may be falling into a trap of what’s politically expedient right now.”
WATCH: What could Biden have done differently in Afghanistan?
