This follow-up to Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World (Palgrave, 2006) seeks to understand why even well-intended efforts to resolve pressing international and global problems so often appear to fail spectacularly and what can be done to remedy this. The author analyzes four of the biggest global governance failures of the last few decades.

Wicked Leadership in Film offers a novel theory of how leaders can contend with so-called “wicked problems,” a class of important, entrenched, and far-reaching political and social challenges (such as climate change or mental illness) that resist ordinary policies and problem solving. Bruce Peabody’s relational theory is built on two central claims. First, it holds that we cannot confront wicked problems without understanding how they relate to other leadership challenges such as confronting crises or managing relatively routine decisions. Second, the model contends that our leaders’ approach to wicked problems must be understood through their ongoing cooperative or antagonistic relationship with the existing political order—a status that shapes their authority and overall, the potential for success. Besides its original argument about wicked leadership, this book provides a distinct method for testing this theory: by studying a series of cinematic case studies ranging from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

This thoroughly researched study highlights the international community's failure to regulate contemporary state research, development, marketing and/or deployment of riot control agents and incapacitating chemical agent weapons.

Clumsy Solutions for a Complex World is a powerful and original statement on why well-intended attempts to alleviate pressing social ills too often derail, and how effective, efficient and broadly acceptable solutions to social problems can be found.

Departing from an International Relations perspective, this book inquires how industry self-regulation affects the role of international law in governing global banks. It provides case studies of the Wolfsberg Principles and the Equator Principles.

President Obama and the UK Labour and Coalition governments have all backed the renewed momentum for serious progress towards a world free of nuclear weapons, whilst the UK finds itself embarked on a controversial and expensive programme to renew its Trident nuclear weapons system. What does the UK process tell about the prospects for disarmament?

Drawn from the results of five seminars this unique book looks at the four areas of: public sector reform; essential features for public leaders; public leadership in action; and the outline of a public leadership approach for the future. It seeks to give public leadership a firm foothold within the study of leadership in general.