Skip to main content

Rebuilding with Care: Keys for Good Post-Conflict Public Administration Cover

.blurhash-client-img { display: none !important; }

Rebuilding with Care: Keys for Good Post-Conflict Public Administration

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy

Volume 18 (2025): Issue 1 (June 2025)

By: Wolfgang Drechsler

Open Access

|Jun 2025

Abstract

This essay, based on a keynote address, suggests three keys for good public administration in post-conflict reconstruction. It emphasizes the importance of carefully selecting advisors, focusing on building administrative capacity, and truly finishing the conflict, especially against a lethal enemy within or without, before initiating reconstruction efforts. Drawing on case studies from Kosova, Myanmar, and broader international contexts, the essay underscores the complexities of reconstructing public administration structures and the need for innovative, yet stable, approaches to governance.

References

Bovens, M. (1998). The Quest for Responsibility: Accountability and Citizenship in Complex Organisations. Cambridge University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Demmke, C. (2017). The European Public Administration Network (EUPAN): Which Contribution to the Informal Civil Service Cooperation in the EU? Revue française ďadministration publique, 161, 31-44. https://doi.org/10.3917/rfap.161.0031
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2025). Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s Siena Frescoes and Public Administration Today. In Edoardo Ongaro et al., eds. The Humanities and Public Administration: An Introduction. Edward Elgar, 236-252. doi.org/10.4337/9781035333608.00021
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2024). In Memoriam György Jenei. Halduskultuur, 22(2), 4-5.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2021). Myanmar’s Civil Service: Responsible Disobedience During the 2021 Military Coup. Public Money and Management, 41(7), 577-580. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2021.1928948
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2020). Seamlessness as Disenfranchisement: The Digital State of Pigs and how to resist it. Acta Baltica Historiae et Philosophiae Scientiarum, 8(2), 38-53. https://doi.org/10.11590/abhps.2020.2.03
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2018). Will Software eat the State? Lessons from the Estonian Presidency for the Future of Europe. In RFTE - Council for Research and Technology Development, Re:thinking Europe: Positions on shaping an idea. Holzhausen.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W. (2001, 27 November). Mis on innovatsioon? Postimees.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Drechsler, W., & Kattel, R. (2020). The Developed Civil Servant - Providing Agility and Stability at the Same Time. Public Money and Management, 40(8), 549-551. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2020.1729522
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
EFDS. (2021, 25 February). Landslide victory for Vetëvendosje in Kosovan parliamentary elections, https://europeanforum.net/landslide-victory-for-vetevendosje-in-kosovan-parliamentary-elections/
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
EUPAN. (2024, 27 February). The Ghent Declaration on the challenges and common actions for European public administrations. European Public Administration Network. https://www.eupan.eu/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-Ghent-Declaration.pdf
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
European Union. (2023). Enhancing the European Administrative Space (ComPAct). Publications Office of the European Union.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
European Union Office in Kosovo European Union Special Representative in Kosovo. (2024, 26 June). The EU in Kosovo on the Draft Laws on Public Officials, Independent Media Commission, and the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/kosovo/eu-kosovo-draft-laws-public-officials-independent-media-commission-and-kosovo-prosecutorial-council_en
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Fung, A., Moss, D., Westad, O. A., Fung, A., Moss, D., & Westad, O. A. (2024). When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, from Ancient Athens to the Present Day. Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Irawaddy. (2021, March 19). Civil Servant on Strike dies of Torture by Myanmar Security Forces. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/civil-servant-strike-dies-torture-myanmar-security-forces.html
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Kattel, R., Drechsker, W., & Karo, E. (2022). How to make an Entrepreneurial State: Why Innovation needs Bureaucracy. Yale University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Mayer, O. (1924). Deutsches Verwaltungsrecht, vol. 1, 3rd edn. Duncker & Humblot.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
OECD. (2023). The Principles of Public Administration. OECD. https://www.sigmaweb.org/publications/Principles-of-Public-Administration-2023.pdf
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Regan, H., Watson, A., Coren, A., Chay, S., & Munsi, P. (2024). Burnings and beheadings: Myanmar junta escalates terror tactics against its people. CNN World. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/27/asia/myanmar-military-junta-civilian-attacks-intl-hnk-dst/index.html
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rist, M. (2024, 16 October). Tourismus und Bürgerkrieg - Myanmars Absturz ins Chaos. Neue Zürcher Zeitung. https://www.nzz.ch/international/tourismus-und-buergerkrieg-myanmars-absturz-ins-chaos-ld.1845832
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Rheinstein, M. (1947). Who Watches the Watchmen? In Interpretation of Modern Legal Philosophies. Essays in Honor of Roscoe Pound. Paul Sayre, ed. Oxford University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Shanmugam, K. (2024, 1 July). Ministerial Speech. IPS-MHA Forum on Non-Violent Ethnic Hostilities, Singapore.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Vitruvius. (1931). On Architecture, Vol. I, Books 1-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 251). Harvard University Press.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Weber, M. (1922). Grundriß der Sozialökonomie 3: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Mohr Siebeck.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article
Wiktorin, D. (2005). Der Wiederaufbau Kölns zwischen Wunsch und Wirklichkeit. Stadtplanung und Stadtentwicklung zwischen 1945 und 1960. Geschichte im Westen (GiW) 20, 201-225.
Search in Google Scholar Back to article

Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/nispa-2025-0001 | Journal eISSN: 1338-4309 | Journal ISSN: 1337-9038

Journal RSS Feed

Language: English

Page range: 1 - 10

Published on: Jun 11, 2025

Published by: NISPAcee

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

Keywords:

Administrative Capacity,

Advisor Selection,

Governance Innovation,

Related subjects:

Social sciences,

Political science,

Local government and administration

© 2025 Wolfgang Drechsler, published by NISPAcee
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Volume 18 (2025): Issue 1 (June 2025)