Abstract
The authors of this text decided to prepare a short article, with the aim to induce further discussion and to orient ongoing and future research efforts in Central and Eastern Europe but also worldwide. The article uses the method of a multi-country case study as the basis for proposing several critical research (and policy) challenges for our region – but many of them of a world-wide character. Four countries are covered by our thumbnail informative sketches – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. The final part of this article proposes a set of questions suggested by the CEE experience with COVID-19 for future research. Such research will both be necessary and interesting for scholarship and policy in the region, and – as a particularly interesting context and area – helpful, one hopes, for questions and answers globally, concerning the pandemic, as well as public administration and policy as a whole.