In recent years, international organizations and the world's population have experienced a series of turbulent events which, because of the extent to which they have affected the planet, have been called crises. The way in which these crises have been dealt with has often been criticised, as the different interests of politicians have hampered efforts to find solutions that are beneficial to all concerned. This material proposes to address crisis situations by appealing to emotional intelligence, specifically to those elements that have the potential to transform a politician into a leader. To this end, we draw attention to a series of research studies that make the correlation between emotional intelligence and leadership. We also refer to a tense event in world history (the Treaty of Versailles), in which John Maynard Keynes demonstrated that the lack of this ability (emotional intelligence) in state leaders led to the deepening of the world crisis, both politically, economically and socially.