May 6
On May 7 at 7AM EDT, I’ll be the keynote speaker for the first seminar of the new South Asia Network for Public Administration. I’ll talk about my book Strategies for Governing. Powerpoint for the presentation here. Zoom details here.
In The Print, Sanjeev Chopra draws on my book Strategies for Governing to discuss geopolitics in South Asia. Read the article.
I’ll be the opening plenary speaker at the 2022 conference of the Canadian Association of Programs in Public Administration, in Victoria on May 25. Title of my talk: “The case for scholarly nationalism in public administration.” Program here. Slides here.
I’ll visit the School of Policy Studies at Queen’s University on November 25 to talk to MPA810, Introduction to Public Administration. Topic: Strategies, paradigms and the machinery of government.
Teaching Public Administration has published a review by Jim Perry of my book Strategies for Governing (Cornell University Press). Perry says: “This is a thought-provoking book, one that deserves the attention of everyone in the field of public administration. It comes at an important time, early in what Roberts calls a ‘dangerous century’ and others have termed an ‘era of estrangement.’ I hope the ideas in the book help change the way we think about public administration, re-establishing a macro approach to complement the current dominance of the public management approach.” Read the review.
Political Science Quarterly has published a review by Iuliia Shybalkina of Strategies for Governing. Shybalkina writes: “The argument’s timeliness is uncanny . . . Roberts’ book is a real bottomless well of research ideas ready to be pursued by scholars, especially junior ones. The book would also be useful for directors of graduate programs in PA interested in equipping students with the mindset and tools to address the big picture.” Read the full review.
Strategies for Governing: Reinventing Public Administration for a Dangerous Century has received the 2021 book award from the Section on Public Administration Research of the American Society for Public Administration. The Committee’s statement: “This book challenges researchers and practitioners in the field to contemplate how we can ‘recover the fundamentals of government,’ and addresses the urgent and fundamental issues we are facing today. The book takes a thoughtful interdisciplinary approach, drawing on public administration history and theory, administrative process development in political science, fragile states research in international relations, and institutional design, presenting an expansive view of the capacities and new directions for public administration as a field of research, teaching, and practice. The nomination letter by ASPA Past President Chester Newland notes this distinctive quality of the book and emphasizes that in light of the ‘currently urgent realities of the field, the analysis is certain to be a lasting contribution.'” More comments and reviews on the book here.
My new commentary, “how to bridge east and west,” is now available (open access) from the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration.
I will give a talk to graduate students in the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University on January 7, 2021. The topic is: “Strategies for governing: The challenge for democracies.” Powerpoint for the talk here.
I’ve written a short comment for Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, “How to bridge East and West.” Manuscript here. Abstract: Today, the field of public administration has two problems that can be fixed with one solution. The first problem is fixation on a limited set of “middle-level” topics in public administration. The second problem is a bias toward scholarship generated within a very small number of Western democracies. We can fix both problems by adopting an approach to scholarship that focuses on the macro-level of public administration — that is, on questions of grand strategy and statebuilding.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
