This new book by Paul Joyce and Turki Al Rasheed is a book about the convergence of public governance and public management. It is an assessment of the modernization of public governance and the development by Gulf state governments of strategic state capabilities. It is intended to be a contribution to filling an important gap in the public administration literature. The book's assessment of governance and the development of strategic state characteristics are based on research findings. It uses evidence from quantitative data and from comparative analysis of the trends and developments of the six GCC states. It seems that most informed international opinion has believed for twenty years now that we live in a globalizing world. The need for integrated, agile and strategic governments can be linked to the perception that government effectiveness is needed to cope with the impacts of globalization and that effectiveness is demanded by the pace and complexity of globalization. In the past, the emphasis was more on policy coordination whereas today the tendency is to assume that the various strategies of different government ministries must be aligned to the long-term vision and priorities of the government and to be integrated and coordinated on a cross-ministry basis. Very often too there is now a call for a prominent role to be taken by a high-powered centre of government equipped with suitable capabilities to facilitate the delivery and coordination of the long-term vision and the long-term strategies of government. The book by Paul Joyce and Turki Al Rasheed concentrates on public governance and national development in the six Gulf states since the mid 1990s. The book shows that the six Gulf states have embraced three new principles of governing, which are government setting long-term visions for national development, government being selective and focused in their actions and interventions in the economy and in society, and government working as an enabler and in partnership with private businesses and other stakeholders. Careful consideration is given in the book to reputational evidence on public governance. Evidence is also presented on the strategic process capabilities of the governments, which the book explores in terms of government capabilities in evaluating policies, government capabilities in adapting policies to changes in economic and social context, the integration and coordination of government machinery, and the ability of governments to mobilize public and private stakeholders. The book also looks at some of the evidence of variations in the success of public governance in terms of consequential outcomes: notably, outcomes relating to the economy, the natural environment, and the happiness of citizens. The book also explores how government strategies for economic diversification of the Gulf states have been reflected in trends in revenues from "oil rents" and whether the six countries are still "rentier states" or not. The countries emerge from this analysis as far from identical in terms of governance reputations and capabilities or in term of outcomes – and still operating within a rentier state paradigm. Academic discussions in universities and analysis in international policy circles (for example, policy circles based on the OECD and the World Bank) have been very concentrated on government networks and democracy and on government effectiveness respectively. Anyone looking seriously into public governance in the context of the Gulf States will soon appreciate that there is more that this to public governance. One of the things that can be learnt from the book's assessment of public governance in the Gulf States is that the national leaders have had to build governance institutions and governance capabilities that can create some kind of moving equilibrium that encompasses the cultural, religious and political dimensions of these countries. This does not make them simpler or less complex governance systems than those of other countries. The long-term visions produced by GCC countries, starting in 1995, and coming right up to 2016, contain not only statements about their economic, social and environmental priorities, not only about their aspirations to uplift the living standards of their citizens, but also statements about the importance of their cultural and religious frameworks. There is also an important discussion to be had about government resources and their use to maintain social cohesion by genuinely trying to meet the aspirations of national citizens. This last statement is another way of introducing the issue of the "rentier state" in the context of Gulf States. It is also clear from the book that the relationships between government resources and citizens' aspirations provide a pivotal dynamic at the heart of governance in the Gulf States at the present time. All six GCC governments have almost the same dreams and aspirations for their citizens. These have been set out in visions and plans. For example, in Saudi Arabia there was the vision 2020 statement. And now there is a new Saudi Vision 2030, which intends the country to be at the heart of the Arab and Islamic Worlds, to become a global investment powerhouse and a global hub for Asia, Europe and Africa. For the aspirations and visions to be delivered the governments will have to meet and address some severe challenges and take whatever opportunities they can. Meeting some of the challenges for example, the pressures of a young population could also be seen as meeting an opportunity, especially if the governments and their partners in the business world together create attractive, high value-added employment opportunities for the young. The drive for diversification as well as the challenge of a burgeoning population delivers a greater need for GCC countries to educate, train and develop their people through the public service systems for education, training and development, and healthcare. After the Arab Spring in 2011, the governments in the GCC spent billions of dollars from their high oil price revenue to make society calmer and less likely to join in the protests. This may have effectively countered social grievances and the danger of protests but the book raises the possibility that it will have made national strategic development harder by entrenching a rentier mentality in the societies of the Gulf states. In their book, Paul Joyce and Turki Al Rasheed conceptualize public governance as having several aspects – leadership, institutions and strategic state capabilities. Leadership as well as strategic state capabilities will be critical dimension for the Gulf states' prospects for breaking out of the rentier state systems they inhabit. By the end of the book Paul Joyce and Turki Al Rasheed come to the conclusion that the six Gulf states have proceeded at different speeds down the road to the strategic state. They interpret comparisons of data for the six countries as showing that the United Arab Emirates, Omar and Qatar have gone furthest in developing the strategic (process) capabilities needed to be an effective strategic state. They also think that it is possible that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait may have a tougher challenge than the others in developing strategic-state capabilities because they have a bigger reliance on oil. They think it almost seems in keeping with common sense views about human nature that a context of munificence is not conducive to striving to make progress.
