Policy innovation and public leadership the Clinton Administration's Counterproliferation Policy Initiative /

by Cerami, Joseph R.

iii This dissertation examines the Clinton Administration’s attempts to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction through the Counterproliferation Policy Initiative. This study of policy innovation and public leadership includes an analytical framework with elements drawn from transformational, transactional, and participative leadership concepts (Bass 1990; Burns 1979; Kaufman 1981; Kotter 1995; Selznick 1984; Terry 2003; Wilson 1989; Van de Ven 2000; Van Wart 2005). Calls for both policy innovation and new public management placed significant demands on leaders during the 1990s. Throughout the Clinton era there were demands for major public management reforms in government (Gore 1993; Osborne and Gaebler 1993; Cohen and Eimicke 1995; Roberts and King 1996). Reforming, reinventing, and transforming public organizations remain popular political and academic approaches to enhancing government efficiency and effectiveness (Thompson and Jones 1994; Kettl and DiIulio 1995; Altshuler and Behn 1997; Light 1997, 1998, 2005; Lynn 1996, 1998; Ingraham, Thompson, and Sanders 1998; Kellerman 1999; Heinrich and Lynn 2000; Barzelay 2001; Ingraham, Joyce and Donahue 2003; Kamensky 2004; Bertelli and Lynn 2006). This dissertation uses a qualitative, case study research methodology (Allison and Zelikow 1999; Bates 1998; Eckstein 1992; Elman and Elman 2001; George 1993, 1979; George and Bennett 2005; King, Keohane and Verba 1994; Polsby 1984; Van Evera 1997; and Yin 1994). The cases include the U.S.-North Korea Agreed Framework; the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program for Russia and the Former Soviet Republics; and the U.S. and U.N. efforts for eliminating weapons of mass destruction in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The U.S.’s role and the roles of its internal government agencies are most significant in international affairs, especially in an age of globalization. U.S. interagency coordination and alignment are indispensable to the creative design and effective implementation of national security policy and strategy. Interagency coordination and long-range planning by the U.S. government, including the national security council and defense, state and other cabinet departments remain major shortcomings, as suggested in each of these cases. This study also reinforces the importance of a public administration framework of public leadership and management, in terms of setting strategic direction, aligning and integrating the efforts of various domestic and international stakeholders, and emphasizing performance measures – both for scholarly research and policymaking. Finally, the reform of the U.N. and the international arms control regime remains an important research agenda for the fields of international relations and public administration. It is at the juncture of these two disciplines of political science that offers great potential for understanding the theory and practice of policy innovation and public leadership to meet the challenges of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st Century.