Designing solutions to problems sounds all well and good. But the problem, as former US State Department official Richard Fontaine once pointed out, is that not all problems can actually be solved. Sometimes, problems have to be managed.
Skilled leaders understand this instinctively. But even they sometimes perceive a greater political advantage in being seen to be doing something rather than nothing. Indeed, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton subscribed to the “get caught trying” school of foreign policy.
