Managing Global Public Affairs
Fall 2025
The two learning objectives of this course are 1) to acquire knowledge and understanding of managing global public affairs from a practitioner perspective and 2) to enhance briefing and drafting skills. The instructor shares insights from a career in global public affairs spanning 42 years. Two writing assignments use the format of professional memoranda. There is one oral briefing assignment and two exams. Students contribute to ten blog posts. The course employs lectures and class discussion, guest speakers, and various media.
Students learn of the special factors involved in managing a public affairs organization outside the organization’s home country. This covers government organizations like embassies and international organizations like the United Nations agencies. The course will also consider private sector contractors and not-for-profit organizations which often implement public affairs programs. Students will gain a degree of the knowledge and understanding a manager must possess to address these factors successfully. Experience in the field will do the rest. Students examine external factors that affect an organization’s operations such as the host government and society, security, the economy, and local availability of resources, including human resources. They will also consider internal management functions most affected by operating in a foreign location: mixed culture human resource management, administrative services for expatriate staff, and other topics. For this course, “foreign” refers to a country other than that where the organization’s headquarters is situated. Note that international organizations (i.e., UN agencies) are inherently “foreign” everywhere.
This course considers managing the platform of an organization operating in a global context in a manner that best facilitates achievement of the organization’s goals. The course focuses on those aspects of management that are most shaped by the international context. Aspects that are less shaped by the international context receive less attention.