P24 Rethinking international public management: institutions, actors and administrative innovation across borders

Panel Members & Contact Details

Diane Stone, Florence School of Transnational Governance, EUI, Academic Director & Chair of Global Policy. Email: diane.stone@eui.eu

Kim Moloney, Ph.D., College of Public Policy, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Associate Professor. Email: kmoloney@hbku.edu.qa

Kanishka Jayasuriya, Politics and International Studies, Murdoch University, Professor. Email: K.Jayasuriya@murdoch.edu.au

Summary

This panel investigates the expanding role of transnational public management in addressing global crises and complex governance challenges. It invites contributions that explore how public managers operate across borders, administer transnational partnerships, and navigate global institutions and regional governance networks. Emphasising diverse perspectives and interdisciplinary approaches, the panel aims to deepen understanding of public administration beyond the nation-state, especially in relation to policy transfer, cross-border regulation, and international public administrations.

Description

This panel invites scholars to engage critically with the evolving interactions among international public management, transnational administration, and global policy making. The panel objective is to examine how public management is practiced, governed, and administered across borders. In an era of crises (e.g., climate change, migration, global pandemics, and cyberattacks) and poly-crises, public managers increasingly operate in complex multi-level and transnational systems involving international organizations, cross-border networks, and globalizing public-private partnerships.

It is increasingly necessary for public managers to operate across jurisdictions to engage in partnerships with their international counterparts for public sectors to respond effectively to global and regional challenges. The panel seeks to explore the theoretical, conceptual, practical, and normative implications of internationalization of domestic actors and structures of public management (e.g., transgovernmental networks) on the one hand, as well as examine the new transnational venues and networks of public sector activity (e.g., G20, BRICS, multi-stakeholder initiatives like GAVI, etc) that have emerged 'beyond the state' in regional venues or global sites and jurisdictions, on the other.

We welcome contributions that illuminate the structures, cultures, and tools of public management operating beyond the nation-state. Topics of interest include:

• The interactions between a country’s public sector leaders and international civil servants (e.g., in organizations like UN, OECD, IMF, World Bank) in shaping governance norms and innovations;
• Transnational policy transfer, diffusion, and learning in international public management;
• Transnational networks of bureaucrats, experts, and practitioners as mechanisms of policy coordination and/or venues for public sector management;
• Administrative capacity building through aid, technical assistance, and transnational training programs;
• Inter-organizational collaboration among official actors (governments, international organizations, trans-governmental networks) and non-state actors (corporations, non-governmental organizations, multi-stakeholder initiatives);
• Transnational organizational processes, rules, and regulatory frameworks that influence and interact with public sector organizations; and
• Ethical and accountability challenges of non-state actors in hybrid public-private international administration.

The panel aims to bridge the gap between public management scholarship and international relations and law via an engagement with global policy and transnational administration. We seek to contribute to a more globally attuned understanding of public sector management in an era where sovereignty is being re-configured by multiple governance innovations. We also encourage studies that move beyond Western-centric models to incorporate perspectives from the Global South and diverse administrative traditions.

Relevance

This panel aligns with IRSPM’s mission to advance research that is interdisciplinary in nature by encouraging applications from scholars in the fields of development studies, international relations, public policy and administration, regulatory studies. By convening scholars from diverse regions and disciplines, the panel will foster rich exchange on how public managers can navigate and shape governance in an interconnected world which requires insights from multiple disciplines and perspectives. 

The panel also addresses IRSPM’s commitment to advancing public management research that is not only global in scope but also policy-relevant in multi-scalar contexts of both transnational and national administrative structures. By focusing on transnational 'polycentric' governance, the panel contributes to a deeper understanding of how public management adapts to a world characterized by interdependence, fragmentation, and complexity.

The conference also has as one other important theme that of innovation.  Many forms of public sector entrepreneurialism are taking place with the growth of new types of administrative structures. These include but are not limited to: transnational public-private partnerships (GAVI, CGIAR); private standard setting regimes (eg., ISEAL, ISO); informal international organizations (not treaty-based bodies, instead the G20, the Arctic Council, etc); regulatory networks; digital platforms for global policy coordination and crisis management (eg UN Global Pulse): and other transnational tribunals, taskforces and administrative bodies.