Running for Roman Consul

As I alluded to in my initial post, I am part way up a ladder on my career, beating my head repeatedly on an invisible ceiling. There are various reasons for this: in stark contrast to my world-view, my institution has deep anxiety issues in a perceived winner-take-all national competition, and has extremely myopic views on how to win; the institution and possibly the entire sector is in a contraction phase; and the entire sector has the most risk-averse profile of anything I've known or studied. I was also recently startled to hear the perspective on the matter of a good overseas professional friend who had visited and met with a number of higher-ups 18 months ago: even as I natively speak the language, and I've held the passport for five years, the cultural and professional jingoism is such that my opportunity as a "foreigner" is limited. Maybe I'm considered a flight risk. Ironically, I've never had plans to leave, but the persistent lack of respect has pushed me to reconsider.