International Public and NGO Management:

IRP 632 Sec 001 (ref. no. 17715)

PPA 632 Sec 001

This seminar is a combined in-person and distance course, using Webpages, text chat, e-mail, and video conferencing as well as in-person discussion sessions. It will begin on August 28 and 31, 2007. The August 31 session will be an in-person session at 9:30 a.m. at Syracuse in the Collaboratorium (Eggers 060), which will also be webcast.

Over the Fall semester 2007, the course unfolds in weekly on-line chats or in-person discussion sessions. There are two in-person sections: from 6:30-9:15 p.m. on Tuesday (Eggers 010) and from 9:30-12:15 p.m. on Fridays (Maxwell Auditorium). The on-line section, primarily for those not resident in Syracuse, takes place on Saturdays from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Students intending to take the on-line section register for one of the in-person sections but inform the professor.

Prof. John Mathiason's background

Synopsis of the Course

The new international order evolving at the beginning of the Twenty-First Century involves governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations. Government management has been studied for centuries, that of international organizations very little and of international non-governmental organizations not at all. The management of these organizations is becoming a key issue as some governments, including the United States under the Bush Administration, have questioned the worth of international treaties and by implication the capacity of the international organizations set up to implement them. Management is increasingly "results-based" where organizations are expected to plan strategically, program tactically and monitor and evaluate outcomes leading to the achievement of concrete objectives.

The course focuses on how international public and non-governmental organizations strategically plan and manage five key functions: regime creation, norm enforcement, peace, security and humanitarian assistance, development assistance and internal management. The course is the first of a two course sequence on results-based management in international public and NGO organizations. The second course is Evaluation of International Programs and Projects. Additional courses taught by other professors deal with specific types of international management. Especially important are two taught by Professor Catherine Bertini, on United Nations Organizations -- Managing for Change and Humanitarian Action: Challenges, Responses, Results

Regime creation involves processes of multilateral negotiation to reach systematic agreements to deal with specific issues in which non-governmental organizations play an increasing role. Norm enforcement includes the use of such tools as reporting, observation, dispute resolution and good offices to implement the norms included in regimes, where the role of non-governmental organizations like Amnesty international are central. Peace, security and humanitarian assistance are services provided when Nation-States are unable or unwilling to provide them and international organizations, public and NGO take over the job. Development is seen as international public investment to support national development efforts and internal management is the function of keeping international organizations effective.

Topics include the nature of global governance and the role of non-governmental organizations. How management of international public and NGO management differs from national and private management and Principles of multilateral negotiation and the role of NGOs. For regime creation processes case studies include the global climate change regime, including environmental NGOs and the verification regime for elimination of weapons of mass destruction, and the role of the peace movement. Norm enforcement case studies include human rights, with an emphasis on women's human rights and the role of Amnesty International and the women's movement and on the WIPO domain name dispute resolution process and the role of the Internet Society and others. Case studies of mobilization of information include international policy analysis through the World Development Report of the World Bank and The World Survey on the Role of Women in Development, including the role of NGOs. In addition to a paper analyzing the management of an international public or non-governmental organization, the course will involve a simulation based on creating a new international organization for the verifictionof the Biological Weapons Convention.