Welcome to Valuable Conversations with the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. Today’s guest is Wolfgang Drechsler. MPA students Maria-Nikol Stoykova and Justin Beirold talk to Wolfgang about his life and work. We discuss how he got into public policy, his interest in non-western public administration, and the complicated history of non-western PA in Nikol’s home country of Bulgaria. We also talk about Wolfgang’s recent advocacy on protests by civil servants in Myanmar, and his experience as an advisor to governments and leaders around the world. Wolfgang is an insightful and funny guest, and we hope you enjoy!



Guest Bio: Wolfgang is an Honorary Professor at UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Professor of Governance at the Department of Innovation and Governance at Tallinn University of Technology, as well as an Associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center.

Dr. Wolfgang Drechsler has been Ad­visor to the President of Estonia, Executive Secretary during the German Reunification, a Congressional Fellow as well as a Senior Legislative Analyst in the United States Congress. He serves or has served as an advisor, especially in the areas of public management reform and innovation policy as well as e-governance, for national governments and international organizations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Council of Europe, SIGMA, World Bank, European Union, Inter-American Development Bank, and United Nations Development Program; he has worked, in different capacities, on the national development plans of, e.g., Estonia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Peru, Brazil, and Norway.

His academic focus areas include Technology, Innovation & Governance; Non-Western paradigms of governance, especially Buddhist, Confucian, and Islamic (Southeast and East Asia); and Public Management Reform generally. He also has a strong background both in heterodox economic theory and in classical political philosophy. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books and journal issues and well over 100 scholarly articles.

- Follow Wolfgang on Twitter: @wjmd

- Read Wolfgang’s recent article: ”New development: Myanmar’s civil service—Responsible disobedience during the 2021 military coup” (2021) (Link)

Learn about our student hosts:

-Justin Beirold (Link)

-Maria Nikol-Stoykova (Link)

Follow IIPP on Twitter: @IIPP_UCL

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/

Production and music by Justin Beirold