Recognizing and Responding to Today's Governance Challenges

• Author: Thad W. Allen
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12804
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

Recognizing and Responding to Today’s Governance Challenges 483

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 4, pp. 483–484. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12804.

Recognizing and Responding to Today ’ s

Governance Challenges

Thad W. Allen is the Distinguished

Professor of Practice at the Trachtenberg

School of Public Policy and Public

Administration at The George Washington

University. He retired as 23rd Commandant

of the U.S. Coast Guard in 2010 and served

as National Incident Commander for the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill. He previously

served as principal federal official for the

response to Hurricane Katrina. He holds a

master of public administration from The

George Washington University and a master

of science from the MIT Sloan School

of Management. He is currently senior

executive advisor at Booz Allen Hamilton.

E-mail: thad.w.allen@gmail.com

Perspective

T hree dramatic forces converging in our world

today challenge any national government.

They put a premium on the intellectual

capacity and level of preparedness required of public

administrators and public service.

Rapid Advancement of Technology

Rules and regulations designed to reduce risk and

protect the public interest delay government ’ s adoption

and deployment of technology. What is different now

is the pace and acceleration of technology.

I fear in this technological race that we do not

understand the implications of major advances in

computation, the ability to connect everyone with

mobile devices, and the fact that we are living in a

connected society. We are now all digital citizens.

People can gather and produce behaviors and yet not

be in each other ’ s presence.

The gap between the pace of technology and the

speed of employing it is widening. In the maritime

parlance, “We ’ re in a stern chase and falling

behind.” We must revisit how government acquires

technology and regulates the private sector. The

traditional distinctions between public and private

goods are blurring. Often the government cannot fix

complex technological problems but has an oversight

responsibility, similar to the government ’ s role during

the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Ingesting and

deploying technology, and competently overseeing

its private sector use such as connected vehicles are

daunting challenges in public service.

In that context, my biggest challenge in the BP

oil spill was what I call the political and social

nullification of the response doctrine. Leaders at the

highest levels of our government could not believe

that the entity responsible for the event could be

consequential in fixing the problem. The guidance

I provided was to focus on the problem, “Let ’ s cap

the well. Let ’ s stop the oil. Accountability for BP will

happen in court.” Through dynamic tension between

cooperation and oversight, we kept the pressure on BP

to accomplish something that had never been done.

We capped a well where there was no human access.

Throughout the 85 days it took to cap the well,

my biggest challenge was trying to orchestrate the

collective efforts of both the public and private

sectors. Political leaders, of course, need to be

relevant to their constituents. But if they do not have

the technical knowledge, how do you make them

relevant? In the end, we both partnered with BP

and provided legal direction when required and thus

were able to control the source and execute clean-up

operations.

Increasing Intersection between

Natural and Built Environment

The second force is the complex intersection

between the natural and the built environment.

Thad W. Allen

The George Washington University

Booz Allen Hamilton

Editor ’ s Note : Admiral Thad Allen received the 2017 Nesta Gallus Award from the American Society of

Public Administration (ASPA) for his lifetime dedication and professionalism in public service. He retired

from the Coast Guard in 2010 and currently serves as senior executive advisor of Booz Allen Hamilton

where he supports government and commercial clients on a range of issues. He is nationally recognized as

an expert in disaster response, having served as the lead federal official for responses to Hurricanes Katrina

and Rita and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In addition, he directed the Coast Guard operations in the

wake of the 9/11 attacks and the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The following Perspective is based on Admiral

Allen ’ s speech given at the 2017 ASPA Conference and reflect conversations he has had recently with Tom

Friedman, author of the recently released book, Thank You for Being Late .

— James L. Perry, Editor in Chief