Peter Blunt’s experience encompasses 25 years of university research, teaching and scholarship and more than 25 years as a consultant specialising in governance, public sector management and questions of political economy in developing countries. He was Foundation Chair of Business and Professor of Management at Charles Darwin University (1990-2000) and before then had held tenured full professorships at the University of Nordland (Norway) and Cardiff University (UK).
He has also held a senior staff position with the World Bank in Jakarta, as Programme Manager of the multi-donor Decentralisation Support Facility (2008-2012). And from 2012 to 2014, he was Governance Programme Manager for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in Mongolia. He has consulted for agencies such as the World Bank, UNDP, ADB, AusAID/DFAT, DFID, SDC, and Sida in more than 30 countries, including 8 fragile states.
He is widely published on aspects of management and governance in developing and developed countries. His commissioned publications for UNDP (New York) on governance and public sector management formed the basis of UNDP policy on these matters and have been well received in many countries around the world. In recent years, his research and writing has become more concerned with critical analyses of the motivations of development assistance and its underlying ideology of neoliberalism and their sometimes damaging consequences for state sovereignty and equitable and sustainable development. This grew out of his earlier criticisms of other forms of ideological imperialism concerned, for example, with notions of good governance and leadership and consulting practice.
He has served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science; Journal of Contemporary African Studies; International Journal of Human Resource Management; and Public Administration and Development and has refereed papers for 21 peer-reviewed journals and five commercial book publishers.
From September 2016 to September 2021, he was Programme Team Leader of the Samoa Governance Support Programme funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Government of Australia.
Selected Publications – Books
1. Blunt, P. (with C. Escobar & V. Missos) (2023). The Political Economy of Bilateral Aid: Implications for Global Development. London: Routledge, pp. 192.

2. Blunt, P. (with M. Jones) (2011 - reprint in hard cover and eBook of 1992 edition). Managing Organisations in Africa. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 356 & xiv. Chapter 2 reprinted in Hickson, D.J. (Ed.) (1997). Exploring Management across the World: Selected Readings. London: Penguin Books.

3. Blunt, P. (with D. Rondinelli) (1997). Reconceptualising Governance. New York: Department of Public Affairs, UNDP, pp. 93 & xi. http://www.pogar.org/publications/other/undp/governance/reconceptualizing.pdf
4. Blunt, P. (with D.M. Warren) (Eds.) (1996). Indigenous Organisations and Development. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, pp. 253 & xv.
5. Blunt, P. (1995b). Public Sector Management, Governance and Sustainable Human Development. New York: Department of Public Affairs, UNDP, pp. 130 & xxvi. Reprinted twice in 1996.
6. Blunt, P. (with M. Jones & D. Richards) (1993b). Managing Organisations in Africa: Readings, Cases, and Exercises. Berlin & New York: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 219 & xii.
7. Blunt, P. (with D. Richards) (Eds.) (1993a). Readings in Management, Organisation and Culture in East and South East Asia. Darwin: Northern Territory University Press, pp. 371 & xi.
8. Blunt, P. (1986). Human Resource Management. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire, pp. 275 & vii. This book appeared in the Longman Cheshire series entitled Australian Management Studies.
9. Blunt, P. (1985). Personnel Management in Africa. London and New York: Longman, pp. 212 & xii. Second edition published in March 1990.
10. Blunt, P. (1983). Organisational Theory and Behaviour: An African Perspective. London & New York: Longman, pp. 195 & xii. Reprinted 1984, 1985.
Selected Publications – Articles

Blunt, P. (with C. Escobar & V. Missos) (2023). The Political Economy of Bilateral Aid: African Development and the Manufacture of Consent. Africa Journal of Management, 9(1), 1-19.

Blunt, P. (2021). Development Undone: Weber, Kafka, and the Organisation of Supply-Side Vested Interests. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 33(1), 74-102.

Blunt, P. (2018). Varoufakis versus Europe’s Deep Establishment: ‘Frail Deeds’, Apologias, and a Battle Lost before it was Begun. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 30(2), 210-225.

Blunt, P. (with F. Mamundzay, & M. Nasary) (2017). The Long and the Short of Policy Pantomime in Afghanistan. Progress in Development Studies, 17(1), pp. 67-88. Shortlisted for best article of the year 2017 - Prize Winning Papers in honour of Robert Potter.
2. Blunt, P. (with S. Khamoosh) (2016). Vexatious Voice: The Politics of Downward Accountability and Subnational Governance Reform in Afghanistan. Progress in Development Studies, 16(1), 81-100. Shortlisted for best article of the year 2016 - Prize Winning Papers in honour of Robert Potter.
3. Blunt, P. (with Ganbaatar Sainkhuu) (2015b). Serendipity and Stealth, Resistance and Retribution: Policy Development in the Mongolian Mining Sector. Progress in Development Studies, 15(4), 371-385.
4. Blunt, P. (with F. Mamundzay, N. Yama, & H. Afghan) (2015a). Policy Paradigms, Subnational Governance, and the State Sovereignty Gap in Afghanistan. Progress in Development Studies, 15(3), 270-285. Shortlisted for best article of the year 2015 - Prize Winning Papers in honour of Robert Potter.
5. Blunt, P. (2014). Whose Resources are they anyway? Community Development Agreements in the Mongolian Mining Sector. Progress in Development Studies, 14(4), 383-399.
6. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner & H. Lindroth) (2013). Morton’s Fork: ‘Democracy’ versus Neopatrimonialism in Developing Countries. International Journal of Public Administration, 36(1), 45-62.
7. Blunt, P. (2012d). Toxic Technical Assistance in Conditions of State Fragility: Field Notes from Iraq. Progress in Development Studies, 12(4), 337-352.
8. Blunt, P. (with H. Lindroth) (2012c). Development’s Denial of Social Justice. International Journal of Public Administration, 35(7), 471-481.
9. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner & H. Lindroth) (2012b). Patronage, Service Delivery and Social Justice in Indonesia. International Journal of Public Administration, 35(3), 214-220.
10. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner & H. Lindroth) (2012a). Patronage’s Progress in Post-Soeharto Indonesia. Public Administration and Development, 32(1), 64-81.
11. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner & J. Hertz) (2011). The Meaning of Development Assistance. Public Administration and Development, 31 (3), 172-187.
12. Blunt, P. (2009). The Political Economy of Accountability in Timor-Leste: Implications for Public Policy. Public Administration and Development, 29 (2), 89-100
13. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner) (2007). Decentralisation, Deconcentration and Poverty Reduction in the Asia Pacific. In S. Cheema & D. Rondinelli (Eds.), Decentralized Governance: Emerging Concepts and Practices. Brookings Institution Press and the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, John F.K. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, pp. 115-130.
14. Blunt, P. (with M. Turner) (2005). Decentralisation, Democracy and Development in a Post-Conflict State: Commune Councils in Cambodia. Public Administration and Development, 25 (1), pp. 75-87.
15. Blunt, P. (2003). Governance Conditions, Roles and Capacity Building Needs in the Rebel-Held Areas of Southern Sudan. Public Administration and Development, 23(1), pp. 125-139.
16. Blunt, P. (with M. Jones) (1999). Twinning as a Method of Sustainable Institutional Capacity Building. Public Administration and Development, 19(4), pp. 381-402.
17. Blunt, P. (1997b). Prisoners of the Paradigm: Process Consultants and ‘Clinical’ Development Practitioners. Public Administration and Development, 17, pp. 341-349.
18. Blunt, P. (with M. Jones) (1997a). Exploring the Limits of Western Leadership Theory in East Asia and Africa. Personnel Review, 26(1/2), pp. 6-23.
19. Blunt, P. (with M. Jones & K. Sharma) (1996a). Managerial Perceptions of Leadership and Management in an African Public Service Organisation. Public Administration and Development, 16, pp. 455-476. .
20. Blunt, P. (1995b). Cultural Relativism, ‘Good’ Governance and Sustainable Human Development. Public Administration and Development, 15(1), pp. 1-9.