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The Personality Problem

In an age of globalization and revolutionary upheaval, grand impersonal forces might appear to be winning out. But don't discount the human factor.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | MARCH 7, 2012

Burma is a big country, boasting a population of some 60 million. It is also sandwiched between India and China, the two rising powers that will define global politics in the 21st century. Depending on how things turn out, Burma could become either a bridge or a battleground.

So it comes as a bit of shock when you realize that the fate of this rather important country rests largely on the shoulders of two people. One is President Thein Sein, the ex-general who is cautiously trying to push the country toward greater openness. His countrymen are hoping he's serious, while the senior military officers who once ran the place are watching from the wings, alert to any signs that his present course might entail a diminishment of their status or wealth.

The other is Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose long years of opposition to the military regime have made her a hero in her homeland and around the world. For the past few weeks she has been out on the campaign trail, running for a seat in parliament. If she wins, she will gain a powerful platform for her message of change, one that could have a profound effect on her country's political future.

These two leaders are very different characters. But they have one very specific thing in common: they are both 66 years old (having been born just two months apart, back in that fateful year of 1945). Partly for that reason, their stories also overlap in another point -- the many lingering questions about their state of health.

Thein Sein has a bad heart. Aung San Suu Kyi recently had to cut short a campaign appearance when she experienced a bout of dizziness. In 2009, when she was still under house arrest, there were serious concerns about her health, with doctors warning about stark dehydration and weight loss.

Burma, it should be mentioned, also has a long and dismal history of political violence. Aung San Suu Kyi's father, a hero of Burma's campaign for national independence, was assassinated. Aung San Suu Kyi herself has been the subject of many threats, and she was the target of at least one attempted assassination that we know of. As for Thein Sein, many of his brother officers have fallen prey to power struggles that have curtailed their freedom, or their lives, over the years.

Soe Than WIN/AFP/Getty Images

 

Christian Caryl, a senior fellow at the Legatum Institute and a contributing editor of Foreign Policy, is the editor of Democracy Lab.

MICHAELGERALDPDEALINO

2:01 AM ET

March 8, 2012

Heroes and Villains

Other notable figures who can be included are Napoleon, Hitler, Roosevelt, Stalin, Mao, Pope John Paul II, Lech Walesa, and Vaclav Havel.

 

KA5S

9:09 AM ET

March 8, 2012

Leaders aren't made to order

...and no, you can't order them on the Internet. You also cannot create them as needed, except by a life that toughens them, makes them able to influence others and then propels them into positions that demand their talents be made use of.

 

XTIANGODLOKI

11:14 AM ET

March 8, 2012

With today's media of course you can create leaders

It's not that the Arab Spring produced no leaders, it's just that there are no leaders who are both pro-West and liked by the general public. At some point the Western media decided that it's better not to manufacture leaders (like they usually do in revolutions) than to create one which the Western governments cannot control.

 

TARDALOVA

11:54 AM ET

March 8, 2012

Good Article

This article surely opens the door for thought about the future leaders of the world. I suspect I will reflect on this passage a decade from now and compare it to the way the world is being run. I hope for the better.

 

EVELINA ROEHLER

3:29 AM ET

April 5, 2012

Burma_a beautifyl nation

I have ever visited Burma with my families four times before. I think that, Burma is so wonderful and it is good idea to travel there. is a country in South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is bordered by India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. One-third of Burma's total perimeter of 1,930 kilometres (1,200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. At 676,578 km2 (261,227 sq mi), it is the 40th largest country in the world and the second largest country in Southeast Asia. Burma is also the 24th most populous country in the world with over 58.8 million people. Burma is home to some of the early civilizations of Southeast Asia including the Pyu and the Mon. In the 9th century, the Burmans of the Kingdom of Nanzhao, entered the upper Irrawaddy valley and, following the establishment of the Pagan Empire in the 1050s, the language and culture slowly became dominant in the country. During this period, Theravada Buddhism gradually became the predominant religion of the country. The Pagan Empire fell due to the Mongol invasions (1277–1301), and several warring states emerged. In the second half of the 16th century, the country was reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty which for a brief period was the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia.