One of the ironies of Cuny's legacy is the contrast between his reputation as a ‘cowboy,’ meant to refer to his free-willed, think-outside-the-box, making it up as he went along approach in crises, and the fact that many of the guidelines that his critics adopted were written by Cuny, such as his Assessment Manual for Refugee Emergencies for the Bureau for Refugee Programs, of the U.S. Department of State.(August 1985). Assessment Manual for Refugee Emergencies. Bureau of Refugee Programs, US Department of State. This manual informed the USAID OFDA's set of guidelines, still in use as the Field Operations Guide, which in turn helped frame the better known Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response produced more recently by NGOs. Similarly, his early guidelines on refugee camp planning significantly influenced UNHCR's Emergency Handbook.
