Stephens, Melodena, Awamleh, Raed, and Salem, Fadi (Eds.) (2022) Agile Government: Emerging Perspectives in Public Management, World Scientific Publishing Company

Perspectives in Public Management", edited by Melodena Stephens, Raed Awamleh, and Fadi Salem, provides a comprehensive overview of the many and varied aspects of agile government, from digitization and the use of all available intellectual resources to stakeholder trust and collaboration.While innovative practices are a key element of agile projects, cognitive biases and limited resources might be obstacles to successful implementations of strategies and projects.For the authors, skills, better data, and political will are scarce resources that need to be further cultivated.The 23 chapters help the readers to understand the ups and downs of agile government (e.g., the support for change brought about by digitalization and the difficulty to deal with a long-term agenda) and identify areas where institutions and stakeholders need to improve to meet future challenges (e.g., innovativeness, adaptability, data literacy, and data sharing).The book is structured into 7 sections, which aim to familiarize readers with agile government and key definitions, present specific case examples to learn more about change processes and uncover tips and significant elements for future considerations.The sections are the following: (1) Concepts & Realities, (2) Systems Thinking, (3) Futureproofing for an Agile Government, (4) Building Trust and Solving Wicked Problems, (5) Cross-Border Challenges, (6) Strategic Communication, and (7) Innovation.In section (1), Chapter 1 defines agile government as "a way of mobilizing public resources in a fluid, interactive, flexible, and resilient manner that optimizes public value generation without rigidity while utilizing fit-for-purpose policies and procedures" (p.18).In that regard, agile government as a new model in public administration aims to enable multilevel and complex structures to navigate challenges in an uncertain future.The COVID crisis has highlighted the importance to move toward "better government" (p.19).Chapter 2 puts forward that a balance is needed in the way one approaches change within institutions, to leave room for agility, but also for stability, structure, and regulations.The authors of Chapter 3 integrate the wide range of stakeholders (i.e., citizenry, service designers, I.T. experts, and policy owners or leaders) in their agile model.While Chapter 4 illustrates restructuration from an agile and public value perspective with the example of the federal government of the United Arab Emirates, Chapter 5 highlights the democratic changes taking place in South Africa.The above examples demonstrate that transformation requires political will.Finally, in the era of digital transformation, recommendations for the Arabic region are developed in Chapter 6, including the need to expand technological readiness, data literacy, and adaptive leadership, among others.Chapter 7 in section (2) explains the WISE method -Whole, not just the Parts (W), Intelligence flows (I), Sensemaking (S), Emergent effects (E) -and highlights that, due to systematic biases, policymakers should always be human-focused.Chapter 8 emphasizes the importance of assessing readiness or the