By Frank Owarish, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

Public administration as generally covered in the curriculum refers to national public administration; the subject is in this context mostly national in scope. Another subject with good coverage in curriculums is comparative public administration, understood as a comparison of public administration in various national settings. An area much neglected albeit practically not covered is public administration seen from an international perspective; this is amazingly so in a world which is increasingly international in nature and where international organizations play an important role. The Department of Public Management of John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York launched an initiative four years ago to study international public administration as such; as a result the area was scouted and defined and since then has been included as a regular part of the curriculum. The purpose of this article is to share this experience for the benefit of those who feel that it is inadequate in the world of today to deal with public administration only with a national perspective.

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INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION MANAGEMENT
THE NECESSARY COMPLEMENT TO NATIONAL PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION MANAGMENT

INTRODUCTION
Public administration as generally covered in the curriculums refers to national public administration. The subject is in this context mostly national in scope. Another subject with relatively good coverage in curriculums is comparative public administration, understood as a comparison of public administration in various national settings. An area much neglected albeit not adequately covered is public administration seen from an international perspective; this is amazingly so in a world which is increasingly international in nature. The predicament was captured in the "Postcards from the Edge: Reflections on International and Comparative Administration at Mid-Life' compiled by Tjip Walker and Derick W. Brinkerhoff (www2.hawaii.edu/~fredr/tjip.htm) wherein it is stated that "The sub-field of international and comparative administration stands on the edge between yesterday and tomorrow. Behind are the youthful years that saw its birth in the 1950s and its recognition as a sub-discipline with the creation of the Section on International and Comparative Administration in 1971. In these early years the emphasis was initially on the transfer of American public administration based on assumptions of universal applicability. Later the focus shifted towards exploring the distinctiveness of the sub-field".

The Department of Public Management of John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York launched an initiative four years ago to study international public administration as such; as a result the area was scouted and defined and since then International Public Administration has been introduced as a distinct and a regular part of the undergraduate curriculum (in fact one of the core subjects). The purpose of this article is to share this experience for the benefit of those who feel increasingly that it is inadequate in the world of today to deal with public administration only in its national dimensions.
Note: The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) has a Section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA); the aims of SICA are provided in Appendix 1, along with the specifics of the SICA web site and the ways used by SICA to further communications among those interested in issues of international and comparative public administration.

A. BASIC PREMISES
Public policies formulated in a national setting affect policies made in international arenas and vice versa. It is hard to imagine the US defining its energy policies without taking into account of policies defined in the context of OPEC, for example. Similarly national policies have to be so defined and geared to have the necessary input or impact on international policies. The interaction of national and international policies is thus concrete and real. The US policies on AIDS could certainly be of benefit to international policies on AIDS.

In the International Campaign Supplement (ASPA's Public Service, 60th National Conference, April 101-14, 1999) Fred Riggs stated that "Public Administration in America is heavily influenced by globalization - many agencies confront international problems that affect their operation, and increasingly transnational organizations develop policies and programs that impact Americans and affect our domestic activities"; and further that "We can also think about how some administrative functions have moved upwards to international organizations or regimes, while others are moving downwards, not only to states in our federal system, but also to autonomous nations, such as indigenous peoples. This means that intergovernmental relations at all levels are becoming more complex and important". In the same Supplement, Derick Brinkerhoff and Tjip Walker in SICA Looks Ahead: Perspectives on the Future of International and Comparative Administration stated that "Global trends for the next millennium point toward more integrated markets and economies, more democratic politics and governance structures, greater reliance on information technologies, and fuller awareness of a shared ecological destiny. This suggests a future of greater complexity, increasing demands on available resources, and even more integration across national and regional borders. They also suggest a future where international dimensions of public administration will be increasingly important and where the need for innovative solutions to public management problems will be acute" (emphasis added).

B. THE JOHN JAY EXPERIENCE
The John Jay experience has been informally shared within the framework of the annual conference of the New York State Political Science Association and attracted a lot of interest. The International Public Administration course at John Jay (PAD 260) starts with a look at policies with their national and international angles and the interaction of the two arenas. The course looks at the various fora where international policies are made, more importantly that of the United Nations. Consideration is given to regional fora as well, for instance the European Union, ASEAN, APEC and so on. The mechanics of policy formulation along with processes including inputs from national actors and the resulting products are covered. This cluster of subjects is followed by the implementation mechanics, processes and actors, namely the international and regional organizations and the instrumentalities they use ranging from programs to operations.

If the interaction of politics and administration warrants attention in the national context, this is even more justified in the international context where the political players are multifarious; in the national context, one has to deal with one government, whereas in that of the UN there are one hundred and eighty-nine governments each with its agenda and interest to take care of. The systems which exist to support the formulation and implementation of international policies warrant attention in the sense that the actors here, just as in the national context, have a bearing both on the formulation process and that of implementation as well. International public management systems are complex indeed. There are planning, budgeting, resource management components along with control and oversight and these are correspondingly more complex than those found in the national settings. The activities are undertaken through a vast network of organizations mirroring hundreds of multinational companies. The activities affect a very broad range of subjects ranging from air travel to public health, e-commerce, domain names on the Internet, telecommunication around the world, labor standards and so on and so forth.

It is hard to imagine someone working in a national public administration having to contribute to national policy making on energy and not having heard of OPEC and how that organization functions. It is a fact that the US Department of State is responsible for policies of the US in its interactions with other nations in the world; the State Department however relies upon inputs from the other substantive departments and agencies and very often the departments and agencies interact with their international counterparts directly; everybody would remember Energy Secretary Bill Richardson negotiating with the influential members of OPEC so as to bring about a favorable outcome to the international supply of oil.

C. THE PAD 260 SYLLABUS
The following is the syllabus of the PAD 260: International Public Administration course offered at the undergraduate level:

PAD 260-01 International Public Administration
Classroom: 3326N; class days/time=Mondays & Wednesdays:18.25-19.40
Prof. Frank Owarish; office=XXX; office hour's=Tuesdays:YYY
Telephone=ZZZ

Course objective:
to provide an opportunity to students to acquire a comprehensive conceptual knowledge of the approaches used in managing international public organizations, programs and operations, from policy making to policy implementation and from strategy definition and planning to day-to-day management, with a special focus on the United Nations and related organizations. Students will be briefed on how to access relevant material on the Internet.

Textbook:
Frank Owarish: International Public Administration Compendium, 1997.

Recommended reading:
1) A collection of books, reports, studies and documents have been placed in reserve in the John Jay College Library (International Public Administration Core Collection)
2) Documents on web sites shown on attached list

Course outline and schedule:
Wed: 9/3 - The international arena: the States, the international organizations; handling of international issues and problems: the international community; interdependence; public administration: national vs. international (policy formulation and implementation); the United Nations as a major player in international public administration (reading: Section 1)

Mon: 9/8 - Policy formulation in international public administration: case study of the United Nations (General Assembly and Security Council) and of the World Bank (reading: Section 2)

Wed: 9/10 - Policy implementation in international public administration: the modalities (reading: Section 3)

Mon: 9/15 - Computer-communications systems as managerial tools plus briefing on accessing relevant material on the Internet (reading: Section 4)

Wed: 9/17 - The boundary of politics and administration; the international secretariat; the international civil service; roles of the International Civil Service Commission (reading: Section 5)

Mon: 9/22 - Implementing substantive (programs and operations) and support activities (reading Sections 6 and 7)

Wed: 9/24 - Hands-on Internet briefing (Library Class Room)

Mon: 9/29 - Planning and budgeting of programs for substantive and support activities (reading: Section 8)

Mon: 10/6 - Planning and management of UN technical assistance programmes and projects (reading: Section 17)

Wed: 10/08 - Assisting developing countries in their effort to develop their human resources: the UN fellowship system (reading: Section 17)

Wed: 10/15 - Mid-semester exercise

Mon: 10/20 - Managing humanitarian operations (reading: Section 11)

Wed: 10/22 - Managing peace-keeping operations (reading: Section 12)

Mon: 10/27 - Managing emergency operations; early warning systems (reading: Section 13)

Wed: 10/29 - Managing non-governmental organizations (reading: Section 14)

Mon: 11/03 - Managing an agency and public-private sectors partnership (reading: Section 15)

Wed: 11/05 - Managing complex international operations; interagency cooperation and cooperation with NGOs and national organizations (reading Section 16)

Mon: 11/10 - Managing programmes aimed at promoting democracy and human rights in the world

Wed: 11/12 - Managing organizations in a worldwide context: centralization, decentralization, coordination
(reading: Section 18)

Mon: 11/17 - Managing organizations in a worldwide context: cooperation and communication between headquarters and field offices and operations; staffing of hardship duty stations; security arrangements (reading: Section 19)

Wed: 11/19 - Review of current issues in international public administration (reading: Section 20)

Mon: 11/24 - Interactions among nations: multilateral and bilateral; international and regional; managing regional organizations (reading: Section 21)

Wed: 11/26 - Accountability and responsibility of international program managers, operation managers and support managers (reading: Section 22)

Mon: 12/01 - Managing international organizations, programs and operations through subcontracting, out sourcing and direct execution (reading: Section 23)

Wed: 12/03 - Internal and external oversight systems (reading: Section 24)

Mon: 12/08 - Restructuring international organizations and streamlining of programs and operations and support systems (reading: Section 25)

Wed: 12/10 - Review of Sections 1 to 12

Mon: 12/15 - Review of Sections 13 to 25; briefing about the final examination

Wed: 12/17 - Final examination

Assessment:
2 projects/case studies (2x10)=20%
Mid-semester exercise=25%
Term-paper/research paper=15%
Final examination=30%
Attendance and participation=10%Web Sites on the Internet

Web Sites:

United Nations
UN Around the World
Reform at the UN
United Nations System of Organizations
North Atlantic Treaty Organisations
Ford Foundation
Amnesty International
Organization of American States
African Union
Association of South East Asian Nations
International Committee of the Red Cross
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The Carter Center
Peace Corps

D. WHAT IS NEW IN INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC MANAGEMENT

1) The quiet management revolution at the United Nations
The United Nations is better known for politics and diplomacy and not so much as an organizational venture operating on a world-wide basis facing daily challenges to get things done in far away and difficult places. In fact, the United Nations faces the greatest management challenges on earth. A quite revolution has been going on; the United Nations just like its Member Governments is involved in re-inventing itself. The UN Secretary-General, the equivalent of the Chief Executive Officer of a large multinational corporation, has stated that the management transformation is a process not an event. In effect, the UN is mirroring what private sector organizations do all the time, that is to keep on re-engineering themselves to face ongoing challenges.

2) How is the United Nations transforming itself
The challenge is the nature of the organization itself and its underlying culture. The Organization was set up at the time of its creation according to the bureaucratic model, the model considered at the time to be the best form of large-scale public organization. Over time that bureaucratic organization grew commensurate to the demands placed upon it by the Member States. The prevailing organizational culture was administrative and legalistic functioning according to a body of regulations and rules; as the organization grew in size and complexity, the body of regulations and rules grew commensurately.

Over the years, the Organization has largely tries to improve itself and has gone through many reforms but perhaps none as radical as the one started in the early 1990s, period during which the Member States themselves faced budget difficulties and became involved in searching for better ways to get things done. In one of the speeches made to the United Nations General Assembly, President Bill Clinton stated that the United Nations should consider re-inventing itself just like the Member States including the United States were having to as a matter of necessity. The United Nations is fortunate in this regard to benefit from the services of Joseph Connor as head of the Department of Management since the early 1990s. Joseph Connor came to the UN from the private sector where he served as CEO of a well-known management consulting company. He came to the UN very well equipped indeed to the position of Under Secretary-General for Administration and Management.

Under the Charter of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the UN is stated as being the Chief Administrative Officer of the Organization with vast administrative powers which in effect is exercised by the right hand person in the position of USG for Administration and Management. So, Joseph Connor came to a very strategic position. However, the task of bringing about management change in an organization having a board of directors consisting of 189 Member States is not an easy one. When Joseph Connor launched the re-inventing/re-engineering venture, he was accused in some political quarters of pushing for the US agenda. Despite the setback, Joseph Connor continued his effort albeit on a less visible manner, in effect transforming the exercise into a quiet management revolution. He had the support of the Secretary-General and the respect of his colleagues Under Secretaries-General all interested in making the organization more productive and knowing very well that if there were anyone in the world who could do that job the person was Joseph Connor.

The Secretary-General has enormous powers as Chief Administrative Officer and can undertake changes on the basis of authority already entrusted to him by the Member States. In practice of course the Secretary-General even if he does not need legislative approval in all instances always tries to bring the Member States on board so to speak. Joseph Connor introduced the re-invention workshops which each department and office undertook; these are equivalent to the re-invention labs known in other quarters. Once the managers became involved in these re-invention exercises they all saw the advantages of the opportunities of being able to bring about positive improvements to their work and that of the their teams.

The elements of a new management culture were thus introduced. Joseph Connor convinced the Secretary-General to drop the administrative part of the designation administration and management and the Department of Administration and Management became known as the Department of Management. This was more than a change in designation; it was a change in mentality and a cultural change from being bureaucratic and legalistic to management and results-oriented; rules and regulations have to be streamlined; in effect the ambiance became one of 'deregulation' so to speak and from then on to rely on policy and operating procedures which are more dynamic in nature and can be changed on an ongoing basis in the light of experience. The improvement exercises are now part of an ongoing organizational dynamics and transformation.

To consolidate this effort, an experiment has been introduced recently called results-based budgeting; in other words, managers have now to be conscious of the outcomes they expect to achieve with the budgetary resources that they request and the budgetary requests have to be supported by justifications as to the outcomes to be achieved, no longer looking just at activities to be carried out but at expected results.

3) Concluding thoughts
The management transformation is a success story. There will perhaps always be setbacks in far away places because of difficulties in operating conditions, human deficiencies, lack of resources and sheer politics; however, the management systems are at their best and the opportunities are there for the managers to achieve results and make the world a better place, if not less bad today than it was yesterday or prevent it from getting from bad to worse.

E. IDENTIFICATION OF THE ELEMENTS OF AN INTERNATIONAL PUBIC ADMIN. PARADIGM
The author of this article was involved in the international public administration curriculum project at John Jay College and subsequently called upon to teach the course on the subject; he found that there was no adequate textbook on the subject and so he used the research material for the curriculum development project to produce an international public administration compendium/course pack; the material is empirical in nature as it tries to capture the reality of international public administration out there. Based upon the curriculum and teaching experience, it is now possible from that empirical base to postulate the elements of an international public administration paradigm:

1) The world is becoming increasingly globalized characterized by complex interdependence and greater reliance on international regimes and the need for public policies, both nationally and internationally to manage situations involving cooperation, competition and conflict in an ongoing manner; one of the challenges to policy makers in both settings is the need to achieve consonance and/or reduce dissonance between policies formulated and implemented in the two domains as these increasingly interrelate and overlap; it is not enough merely to compare what is taking place in various countries or regions of the globe. It is essential to examine the way that nation-states, regional bodies and international institutions deal with one another. These external actions shape domestic policy making and influence the environment of public administration at all levels. National decisions to participate in international and regional institutions are taken at the cost of reduced independence and flexibility with the benefit however for the nations to achieve goals collectively that are not feasible unilaterally (cases in point NAFTA, European Union, ASEAN);

2) International public administration is different from international politics just like national public administration is different from national political science, i.e., in focus and scope. International public administration is also different from international relations in the sense that the former looks at the accomplishing side of international organizations and the latter does not have such a managerial focus. International public administration has its well-defined niche but is not currently receiving the attention that it deserves both at the national and international levels.
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APPENDIX 1
SICA - Home Page: www.uncc.edu/stwalker/sica/

Welcome to SICA-Web, July 1, 2000
The Section on International and Comparative Administration (SICA) groups those members of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) committed to introducing an international and comparative perspective into public administration practice and academic discourse. SICA offers a forum for practitioners, teachers, researchers, and consultants to share experiences and to reflect on challenges facing the field worldwide.

This web-site is intended to further that mission. Specifically, SICA aims to:

Facilitate professional networking;
Identify "best practices" in worldwide public administration and management;
Link professional and technical resources to adapt "best practices" to diverse cultural and institutional contexts, both in the U.S. and overseas;
Support research and publishing on international/comparative public administration and management topics;
Stimulate, develop, and disseminate teaching and consulting materials in the field;
Build student interest in the field of international/comparative administration; and
Support young professionals entering the field.

SICA members are dedicated to meeting the global challenges of the 21st Century.
We will build administrative and managerial capacity for societal transformation in the areas of democratization, the free market economy, security and political alliances.

Explore the potential for innovative institutional arrangements, such as public-private collaboration/partnerships.
Develop innovative administrative and operational responses to trans-boundary global problems, such the
environment, terrorism, HIV/AIDS, ethnic conflict, and drug abuse.

Integrate international, comparative knowledge and approaches into public administration training and all sectors of government. Respond to global economic interdependence by expanding professional, scientific, and cultural exchanges worldwide.

Membership: If you support these aims, please consider becoming a member of SICA. Dues are $15 per year in addition to membership in ASPA. Membership has its benefits, including a subscription to the section newsletter, access to occasional papers, and a copy of the membership directory.

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