Leonid Bershidsky: Maybe the free world doesn't need a leader
Quiet, soft power as practiced by European nations, Canada and Japan might work better as an advertisement for democracy than U.S. assertiveness has since the end of the Cold War.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech in front of a historical photograph in the Berlin Wall memorial at Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2014. 25 years ago - on Nov. 9, 1989 - the East-German government lifted travel restrictions and thousands of East Berliners had pushed their way past perplexed border guards to celebrate freedom with their brethren in the West. (AP Photo/dpa, Soeren Stache)