I'd be interested to hear more on this. At the minute I'm not sure what dire circumstances you mean, or how having a leader implies a threat of war. It seems like a lot of what you wrote could be applied to any leader of any nation.

I went through a vehement anti-monarchy phase when I was younger, since then I'm starting to appreciate the idea of a head of state who isn't a career politician that campaigned or even bought their way into office.