The Fourth Industrial Revolution centers on artificial intelligence that initially operates in a virtual reality, assuming events that have not occurred, upon which advanced programming is built to produce highly capable intelligent machines or robots that can autonomously, automatically, and rapidly handle actual reality without human intervention. This revolution is reinforced by fifth-generation smart mobile communications and the unprecedented spread of social media platforms.

In the first half of 2020, a global pandemic (COVID-19) swept the world, causing widespread closure of educational and cultural activities and restricting social and economic activities amid millions of infections and deaths and prolonged curfews. This led to a boom in e-learning, e-government, and electronic activities across fields. However, e-learning as a response to this severe challenge did not meet basic requirements for quality education, which posed a significant challenge for various disciplines, including public administration.

The crisis of liberal capitalism deepened when, after roughly fifteen years of imposing structural adjustment programs on Sub-Saharan African states, these programs failed to achieve the desired outcomes. The 2007 global financial crisis brought worldwide economic recession. This period saw a retreat from globalization: stalled global trade liberalization talks (Doha Round) and declining leadership of the free market model, with rising criticism of globalization and its effects on global and national economies.

Privatization of the public sector in Arab countries was met with popular rejection due to mass layoffs and the inability of nascent private sectors to absorb released labor. Privatization was accompanied by labor protests in particular.

Industrial activities, modern inventions, and human actions against the environment have led to climate change: rising temperatures, shrinking green areas, environmental pollution, ecosystem disruption, and harm to human health. These environmental risks have increased in the Arab region amid weak environmental systems in several Arab states.

The “bureaucratic beast” adapted to e-government by making superficial changes within public institutions and by public employees while preserving the bureaucratic DNA—its goals, accountability arrangements, authority structures, and culture. E-government did not deliver the required performance leap for the state apparatus for several reasons: its one-way communication focus lacking needed interaction between service requester and provider; inability to achieve good public governance (weak accountability, transparency, and e-participation); and weak responsiveness amid rapid technological advances, especially evolving social media, smart phones, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The New Public Management (NPM) school, particularly its reinvention and debureaucratization strand, faces contradictions: it recommends competition among government units to improve quality while also warning against government bloat; it favors the private sector to achieve public goals while asking the public sector to make profits and adopt an investment orientation. It is illogical for government to compete with the private sector when government regulates and sanctions that sector—akin to a referee playing in the same game. These contradictions form challenges for the public administration specialization in the Arab region, given many Arab public administration schools’ insistence on NPM.

Given these developments and the need for public-sector employees and managers from diverse disciplines to enroll in public administration graduate programs, emphasis should shift toward professional master’s and professional doctorates in public administration, especially for those from non-political science backgrounds.

Because static e-courses are largely one-way, there is a need—given technological advances—to move from static e-courses to interactive e-courses that provide two-way communication with learners.

With the rise of public-sector problems and underperformance, there is a need to shift toward problem-based learning, which better aligns with a move to professional degrees.

In light of required transformations and the stated challenges, there is a need to move from traditional teaching to active learning strategies.

Consistent with prior transformations, there is a need to move from rote, didactic teaching to inquiry-based teaching.

In response to the earlier challenges, a move is needed from traditional teacher-centered instruction to reciprocal teaching where students can take the lecturer’s role (preparing and presenting), and the lecturer listens and discusses—enabling role exchange.

Scientific progress comes via critical thinking about existing theories, models, and schools, pushing toward new ones. “Spongy” thinking has dominated Arab public administration, causing stagnation and leaving development largely Western. A shift to critical scientific thinking is needed to generate substantial Arab contributions.

In light of the challenges, curricula and research should shift focus from e-government to digital government—the move from the electronic to the digital generation of public administration.

Responding to earlier challenges, it is important to shift curricula and research from governance to digital governance. Digital governance provides an accountability and decision-rights framework for an institution’s digital presence (websites, mobile sites, social channels, and internet-supported products/services). It aligns with IT governance frameworks such as COBIT 5 and ISO/IEC 38500.

In response to environmental and economic challenges, curricula and research should move from environmental management to environmental governance.

In response to challenges, the specialization should shift from local administration to local governance through participatory anticipatory planning to interact with economic, political, technological, and societal challenges.

Reinventing government has not achieved its goals generally nor in the Arab world specifically; many public organizations still face managerial problems and limited achievements. Focus should shift to reinventing public organizations.

Due to criticisms of NPM, the New Public Service (NPS) movement emerged, grounded in citizenship, democratic civil society, humanistic organization theory, and modernization theory. NPS emphasizes: serving citizens (not customers); pursuing shared values and the public interest; directing public policy to meet public needs through collaboration; achieving public interest through public dialogue on shared values; public servants’ care for law, constitutional values, societal values, professional standards, and citizens’ interests; organizational success via collaboration and shared leadership with respect for all; and public interest through commitments of public servants and citizens to contribute meaningfully.

To face technological, economic, political, environmental, and administrative challenges, curricula and research should move from MIS to knowledge management systems and expert systems.