Over decades now, we have presented the Horn of Africa States discussing, explaining and narrating through many dimensions the raison d’etre for an economic integration of the region. The articles and books we initiated and penned, in this respect, have pleased, disappointed, and/or angered many, but overall they have enlightened many more on the region and pulled back the veil of the mysteries of the region, which make it to be an almost household news item everyday not for successes it has achieved but for its endless conflicts, its hunger and its large exodus and refuge populations across the globe, and indeed, its geostrategic location and our relentless writing on the subject.

In this article we shall examine the leaderships the region throws up once again and at least those of the last three decades, which have made the region almost the laughingstock of the world and where many look at it with pity, sadness at times, and curiosity at its labyrinthine tribal/clan structures, which fascinates many, disappoints many and, which have been the main cause of the competition for power in the region.

Leadership, they say, is a process where a group of people, a community, a region and/or a nation is moved towards a specific goal or scheme, which stimulates them to work through their own choices. A leadership theory answers three main questions, namely the what, the why and the how of things according to Bian Whetten (2002). The questions define the goal, the methods and the reasons behind selecting a particular process. Leadership involves a timeline of the past, the present and the future.

How have these leadership processes affected the region and what kind of leadership has the region thrown up over these past decades? Could it have done better or could it do better in the future? These and many other questions come to mind when leadership, in the Horn........

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