Leadership in times of terrorism threat : An Analysis of George W. Bush’s and Barack Obama’s leadership qualities concerning counterterrorism

Abstract: While the US-presidency comprises the most powerful office of leadership in the world and has also been investigated at various angles in personal, biographical approaches as well as comparative studies, this research paper specifically lays focus and compares the two presidencies of President Bush and President Obama in regard of their leadership qualities and counter-terrorism strategies. Because counterterrorism seems to be a good example of how presidents perform crises-management and because the subject by itself is critical in the perspective of human rights and security concerns, the research paper has chosen to focus on President Bush and President Obama who are known to have chosen different routes and strategies in countering terrorism. However, when comparing the two presidents’ leadership qualities regarding their counter-terrorism strategies, this paper concludes that on this matter the strategies of the two presidents were not quite so different as expected and a possible path of continuity runs through this realm of US-foreign affairs and presidents’ leadership decisions.