The International Civil Service Revisited

Abstract

The Public Administration Review published a symposium in 1970 on the international civil service.' The authors in this article do not propose to repeat what has been said then and since. More simply, the purpose here is to submit to fresh scrutiny some of the major tenets of the international civil service in relation to changing needs of the international system and to identify those aspects that need to be reevaluated. The approach is essentially reflective and speculative, but it is also factual and analytical. The focus is successively on the unification of the international service, its nature and composition, career problems, remuneration criteria, and staff morale, all of which have emerged in recent years as burning but unsolved problems. Comparisons with national services inevitably come to mind. They are, however, outside the scope and nature of this article, the purpose of which is to call attention to issues that are specific to the international service; that is, to situations which are not found in the same way and with the same degree of intensity in national bureaucracies. In many parts of the world, and especially in the United States where expectations were very high, a widespread disappointment has emerged in recent years from the failure of the United Nations to meet the hopes raised by its creation. Yet, observers cannot fail to note that despite its inadequacies the organization has continued to proliferate in a steady expansion of new tasks and organs. In activities and achievements, however, the trend has been away from the original objective, that of ensuring international peace and security, toward the array of problems, many of them urgent, arising out of the confrontation of the rich and the poor countries as one of the major issues of our time. The main effort has been and still is in the direction of improving the economic and social conditions of the socalled Third World. It is expressed in various programs and in various forms of development assistance to promote a sustained increase in the countries concerned. In addition, a number of new problems have appeared that cannot be handled within the narrow confines of even the largest countries. These require concerted action at the global, or at least regional, level. Among them are the exploitation of the seabed, the peaceful use of outer space, the protection of the environment, and the regulation of transnational corporations. More specific matters also command attention, such as problems of refugees, especially in Southeast Asia, and of famine in Africa.