Administering Global Governance - The Human Factor: Publications 

A Global Public Service

Volume 30 International Institute of Administrative Sciences Monographs
Edited by: I. Pichardo Pagaza and D. Argyriades
February 2009, approx. 240 pp., softcover
ISBN: 978-1-58603-958-5 NEW
Price: US$104 / €72 / £54 Distribution: ISO Press

Excluive offer for IIAS Members ONLY: €45 (to benefit from this discount rate,please fill out this order form) 

 

The events of recent months bring into sharp relief the salience of the theme which runs through the two volumes produced, on global governance, by the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS). Entitled “The World We Could Win”, the first appeared in print three years ago exactly. The second is a sequel to this introductory volume and, as its title states, both adds a note of urgency to the debate on the subject and takes it one step further. Not only is “needed change” now seen in terms ofsafeguarding the future of humanity at large and of our Planet Earth, but also asclearly possible and in our grasp.

According to this volume, the way out of the crisis, afflicting large parts of the world right at this very moment, goes through reinforcing the structures and processes of governance but, more than anything else, rediscovering the importance and redefining the role of the human factor in governance. Written by a group of scholars from all the world’s main regions, this volume begins by revisiting the notion of global governance already once explored in the “World We Could Win”. It then moves on to draw the contours of the corps of “Global Public Servants”, which represents the book’s core concept, contribution and proposal for reform. Though rooted in the practices ofmajor international organizations, the present volume makes some new recommendations intended to overcome the main observable weaknesses in their administration and operations. It also outlines an institutional framework and certain basic prerequisites for public service professionals to enable them to play a meaningful
role, indeed exert some influence and have the needed impact in dealing with the challenges confronting global governance.

These tasks of global governance, the authors of this volume do not see as vested solely in the United Nations Secretariat or the Bretton Woods institutions. Rather, they see those issues as shared remit of officers of governments and NGOs and even corporations on the national and regional, as well as global levels. Of critical importance in the authors’ eyes, accordingly, is the task of building bridges and significantly raising the quality of the dialogue and interface between them. Developing a mindset conducive to these ends, as well as in-depth knowledge of relevant concerns is critical in this regard. Writing on Latin America and Africa, for instance, two authors have remarked on the relative absence of courses chiefly designed to impart a proper understanding of major global challenges from a world-wide perspective.

Promoting such perspectives and helping to re-instate global governance and administration to the level of importance, which they so richly deserve, is the avowed objective of this volume of IIAS. The goal may sound ambitious but it is also timely and realistic. What the world has witnessed recently is, arguably, the meltdown not of financial markets so much as of an ideology which dominated the scene for close to 30 years. Disparaging all government, it looked to markets for answers. Perhaps the time has come to accept that both are needed. What recent mega-crises have shown, on the other hand, is the extent to which the problems, for which we seek solutions, elude the grasp of any single national government. They call, instead, for structures but mostly a new mindset: those of global governance.

Cross-culturally conceived and written in three languages, this addition to the series of the IIAS on global governance issues is a “must” for any student or scholar of the subject, as well as a needed addition to university libraries and centres of research.

Since the United Nations has declared 2008 the International Year of Planet Earth, IIAS is proud to launch a book which bears this very title and calls for urgent action to save our Planet Earth.