Coping with Crisis: Hong Kong Public Health Officials and the "Bird Flu"

Publication Date: June 01, 1998

This case recounts the efforts of Hong Kong public health authorities first to identify and then control a dangerous new flu virus not previously known to infect humans. The case focuses on the authorities' communication with the public, as they...

The General and the "War" on Drugs: Barry McCaffrey and the Office of National Drug Control Policy

Publication Date: June 01, 1998

When General Barry McCaffrey, a decorated war hero, agrees to take command of the U.S. office of National Drug Control Policy, he encounters an office in such disarray that some in Congress doubt whether it should continue to exist. He boasts...

Going Against the Grain: A "Conservative" Think Tank in Massachusetts

Publication Date: June 01, 1998

When a retired Massachusetts oil company executive decided, in the mid-1980s, to establish a free market-oriented public policy think tank, he faced daunting obstacles. Massachusetts had historically been one of the nation's most politically...

USDA's Civil Rights Reform (Part 2): Making Change Happen

Publication Date: June 01, 1998

This pair of cases combines description (Part 1) of the political management of a festering issue at the sprawling U.S. Department of Agriculture, with description (Part 2) of specific steps designed to promote and institutionalize...

Policing Chicago's Public Housing Developments: Operating in a Unique Environment

Publication Date: June 01, 1998

The infamous Cabrini-Green public housing project, dominated by large violent criminal gangs, is the setting for this case describing the unusual tactics of a group of Chicago police. The "Slick Boys", a group of veteran officers use rap...

Discussing Disaster: Picking up the Pieces (D)

Publication Date: April 01, 1998

This is both a crisis management communication case and a case about the relationship between civil servants and local government in a fledgling democracy. Set in Hong Kong, the case describes the confluence of events which lead to what is...

Discussing Disaster: Apology? (C)

Publication Date: April 01, 1998

This is both a crisis management communication case and a case about the relationship between civil servants and local government in a fledgling democracy. Set in Hong Kong, the case describes the confluence of events which lead to what is...

Discussing Disaster (A)

Publication Date: April 01, 1998

This is both a crisis management communication case and a case about the relationship between civil servants and local government in a fledgling democracy. Set in Hong Kong, the case describes the confluence of events which lead to what is...

Office of the Rail Regulator (Abridged)

Publication Date: March 09, 1998

This case describes the first four years of John Swift's tenure as Britain's Rail Regulator and the issues he faced in the fall of 1997. The post of Rail Regulator had been created by the Railway Act of 1993, as part of a plan to break up and...

Defending National Interest: Ukraine and Peacekeeping in Transdniestr

Publication Date: January 01, 1998

The last quarter of the twentieth century has seen the emergence of what is arguably a new sort of military operation, one designed to keep warring factions apart so a nation's social fabric can heal, with bloodshed suppressed. Peacekeeping,...

Price Cap: The UK's Efforts to Regulate Regional Distribution Companies

Publication Date: January 01, 1998

This case focuses on the efforts by Stephen Littlechild, the United Kingdom's electricity regulator in the mid-1990s, to set performance-based rates for the country's 13 electricity distribution companies. The case allows for a class discussion...

Capitalization: The Politics of Privatization in Bolivia

Publication Date: January 01, 1998

In this case, the president of Bolivia and a team of officials grapple with questions of how to set up a model for privatizing a number of state-owned enterprises. In the 1980s, Bolivia, like most other Latin American countries, embraced a more...