Chronicle of the International Institute of Administrative Sciences
| DOI | 10.1177/00208523211058651 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Sofiane Sahraoui |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Chronicle of the
International Institute of
Administrative Sciences
Sofiane Sahraoui
International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Belgium
Managing the “Opportunity of the COVID-19 crisis”at the
International Institute of Administrative Sciences
Public administration will never be the same during and after COVID-19—if there is ever
an after COVID-19. Sabine Kuhlman, International Institute of Administrative Sciences
(IIAS) Vice President for Western Europe, developed along with a number of colleagues
(Kuhlmann et al., 2021), a cross-country comparative analysis in the September 2021
special issue of the International Review of Administrative Sciences (IRAS)on
“Testing the crisis: Opportunity management and governance of the COVID-19 pan-
demic”. The comparison shows that opportunities arise during crises and the extent of
these opportunities increases with the magnitude of the crisis. Needless to say that the
COVID-19 crisis is a global cataclysm of a magnitude hardly seen before. Its longevity
makes is all the more trying for a variety of actors including governments and public
administration. The opportunities are, however, immense as well. According to
Kuhlman and her co-authors, “opportunity management”by various political and admin-
istrative actors will depend on both institutional factors and individual ones. Institutional
factors consist of the institutional starting conditions, administrative cultures and histor-
ical path dependencies. Individual factors consist of the strategies of actors who will see
in the crisis a welcome opportunity to demonstrate leadership and effective governance.
In these annual chronicles, and other than referring the reader to the excellent special
issue of IRAS and in particular Kuhlman et al.’s contribution, I would like to review the
work of the IIAS during this year and plans for the years ahead in terms of the conceptual
framework laid out by the guest editors to the special issue. How did the IIAS, through the
agency of its secretariat, manage opportunities arising from the COVID-19 crisis. It goes
without saying that the special issue is about managing the health crisis itself at the
Corresponding author:
Sofiane Sahraoui, Director General, International Institute of Administrative Sciences, Rue du Commerce 96,
Bruxelles 1040, Belgium.
Email: s.sahraoui@iias-iisa.org
Chronicle
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2021, Vol. 87(4) 980–984
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/00208523211058651
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