NETWORKING WORKSHOP
May 2, 2009
University of California, Santa Barbara
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PARTICIPANTS
MARGARET
HERMANN
Maxwell
School, Syracuse
Margaret (Peg) Hermann is Gerald B. and Daphna Cramer Professor of Global Affairs and Director of the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs at the Maxwell School. Her research focuses on political leadership, foreign policy decision making, and the comparative study of foreign policy. Hermann has worked to develop techniques for assessing the leadership styles of heads of government at a distance and has such data on over 150 leaders. She is currently involved in exploring the effects of different types of leaders and decision processes on the management of crises that cross borders and boundaries as well as in a large interview study of the governance challenges facing the leaders of transnational non-governmental organizations.
She has been president of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) and the International Studies Association (ISA) as well as editor of the journal, Political Psychology. At present she is editor of the International Studies Review, a journal of the ISA, and Advances in Political Psychology, an annual sponsored by ISPP. She developed the Summer Institute in Political Psychology and was its director for nine years. Her books include The Psychological Examination of Political Leaders; Describing Foreign Policy Behavior; Political Psychology: Issues and Problems; and Leaders, Groups, and Coalitions: Understanding the People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking. Among her journal articles are “Presidents, Advisers, and Foreign Policy,” “Leadership Styles of Prime Ministers,” “Rethinking Democracy and International Peace: Perspectives from Political Psychology,” “International Decision Making: Leadership Matters,” “Ballots, a Barrier Against the Use of Bullets and Bombs,” and “The US Use of Military Intervention to Promote Democracy: Evaluating the Record.” Hermann received her Ph.D. in psychology from Northwestern University.
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In delving into our interviews of 152 CEOs of transnational NGO organizations registered in the United States, we became aware quickly of the differential role that religion appears to play in how these organizations are governed and in their definitions of civil society. Some are clearly faith-based and structure their organizations around not only providing a service but also in doing so in a way that emphasizes the relevance of a particular religion to one’s quality of life. A second group views religion as providing an ethical framework on which to base actions and activities—viewing some behaviors as more morally right than others and, thus, more preferable. The rights-based approach to development is perhaps a case in point. A third group is more secular and focused on the separation between religion and civil society. Religion has its place in civil society but should not provide the leadership or structure for civil society. Of interest is what happens when all three types of organizations are engaged in humanitarian relief or development in a particular community in the Global South and advocating their particular perspective regarding the nature of civil society? How well can organizations across this spectrum work together in the development of a global civil society—on such issues as AIDS, poverty alleviation, refugee flows, human rights, fair trade, and broadening the participation of underrepresented citizens (e.g., women, disabled)? These are questions our students ask, in particular those interested in becoming part of the larger transnational NGO community; many are from outside the United States, have led small not-for-profits or NGOs in their countries, and have experienced the dilemmas raised by these different views of the role of religion in civil society.
