Peacekeeping Reform: Managing Change in an Organized Anarchy

Abstract

Recent administrative reform initiatives at the UN Secretariat, including reforms of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), have reflected, and been formulated in the language of, models and standards drawn from the fields of management and public administration. Theories of rational design, principal-agent relations, sociological institutionalism, and garbage can processes offer divergent explanations for this phenomenon. Through a case study of the adoption of matrix management practices in the UN Departments of Peacekeeping Operations and Field Support, this article investigate the process and mechanisms by which theoretical concepts, standards, and models of management in organisations, largely derived from the corporate world, are imported and applied to the peace operations bureaucracy. I argue that the establishment of Integrated Operational Teams (IOTs) in the UN Secretariat is consistent with a garbage can model of peacekeeping reform.