International Civil Servants Research Articles

“What the Secretariat Makes It”: United Nations Civil Servants between Administrative Function and Contemporary International Lawmaking

Abstract As the only international organization that aspires to be unviersal both in terms of its membership as well as in terms of the policy fields in which it intervenes, the United Nations (UN) occupies a unique position in international lawmaking. Focusing on the UN’s political and judicial or quasi-judicial organs does not, however, fully capture the organization’s lawmaking activities. Instead, much of the UN’s impact on international law today can be traced back to its civil servants. In this paper, I argue that international lawmaking today is best understood as processual and fluid, and that in contemporary lawmaking thus understood, the UN Secretariat plays an important role. I then propose two ways in which international civil servants add to international lawmaking: they engage in executive interpretation of broad and elusive norms, and they act as an interface between various actors on different governance levels. This raises novel legitimacy challenges for the international legal order.

The osce and the Minsk Process for Ukraine

Abstract The article aims to shed light on how international organisations are transformed through creative diplomatic agency. Mobilising the theoretical tools of pragmatist sociology, and taking the empirical example of the osce and its involvement in the management of the crisis in Ukraine between late 2013 and early 2022, the study shows how diplomats, international civil servants, politicians and other actors, related to the Organisation, seize the international issues, define problems, propose and negotiate solutions, and put them in practice within a dynamic process, through which the role and identity of the Organization itself is transformed. Practices understood as deliberative processes of recombining institutional resources in novel ways, underscore the change which is not necessarily strategic, nor can be placed in causal sequences, but is always creative, and unpredictable.

PROSPECTS AND POLICIES FOR TOURISM IN ITS GEOPOLITICAL CONTEXT

Purpose. In yet another attempt to analyse the tourism phenomenon in perspective, the aim of this paper is not necessarily to predict the quantitative future of tourism worldwide. It is rather to review the circumstances and mechanisms in their geopolitical context, by which it may, or even must, evolve in the mid- and long-term. This is due to its importance for contemporary society and the barriers to its further growth. It then pretends to recall the expectations deposited in tourism, for example, on the establishment of the World Tourism Organization, and to review the very meaning and essence of tourism as part of the movements of persons, when confronted with policies or their lack in this area. General prospects and challenges of tourism are briefly addressed from the demand, supply, trade and investment perspectives, as viewed from respective international organizations and its principal geopolitical actors, notably Europe and her overseas extensions (also China).Methods. Critical analysis and clarification of the apparently established views about tourism and its nature, based on the author`s work experience in relation to this activity: as a tour leader, government official, international civil servant and academic lecturer. The said analysis is supported by scrutiny regarding the relevant parts of tourism policy documents produced over years by international organizations.Findings. In a follow-up to the escalating health, economic, social and environmental crises affecting the world community, tourism, as a consumption, production, trade and investment activity, should not continue by following the rule of business-as-usual. When reconsidered as an intrinsic part of the entire economy and social life, it rather requires, alongside and not apart from, other human activities, to be essentially, politically, structurally and gradually, if not radically, intervened. This should result from international agreement among constituencies at large - governments, industry the private sector, civil society patronised by international organizations.Research and conclusions limitations. The findings represent a personal expert opinion verified by desk research of activities undertaken by international organizations. The veracity of the suggested recommendations would require response, validation and constructive action of the parties and the big players concerned in the field of tourism, to result from their continuous and constructive dialogue.Practical implications. Contribution to the international debate on tourism policymaking and the role of the World Tourism Organization.Originality. Bringing up the nature and essence of tourism, its unfulfilled promises, messages of the World Tourism Conference (1980) and the activities of international organizations.Type of paper: Review paper based on the analysis of literature and reports of international organizations.

Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante and the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (1975–1992)

Abstract This article uses Samuel Kwadwo Boaten Asante’s career at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (UNCTC) as a prism for examining the place of Third World Approaches to International Law within mainstream international organizations (IO) law. By focusing on his role as chief legal adviser, director and highest-ranking legal civil servant at the UNCTC during the heydays of the New International Economic Order (NIEO), it uncovers a less-examined international institution and the dilemmas faced by the Third World international legal civil servant. By examining Asante’s intellectual history and publications during the operational years of the UNCTC, it identifies three main under-explored typologies of Third World approaches to IO law. It argues that the low visibility of Third World approaches within mainstream IO law is closely linked to the failures of the NIEO movement, the abolition of the UNCTC, which symbolized the non-realization of aspirations to codify the principles of the NIEO through IOs, and minimal engagement by IO law scholars with Third World problems. This article argues that, even though the UNCTC ceased to exist in 1992, it created a lasting legacy through its advisory services, which forms part of IO law history.

The mirage of integration: Taking a street-level perspective on the nexus approach

The nexus approach for sustainable management of natural resources combines environmental management and governance across sectors and scales. This approach, along with other integrative practices, has however seen limited uptake in practice despite its great promise. Drawing on the ‘street-level bureaucracy concept’, this article examines the role of policymakers in a nexus project, using interviews with international civil servants on a natural resource use team. Barriers and opportunities for the adoption of integrative thinking are identified, and factors influencing the nexus process are found to range from individual, organizational, contextual, and political factors to external actors. The most prominent factor is found to be individual factors, mainly due to discretion during implementation and individual values and norms. Solutions to improve adoption will vary depending on the operational environment and the article highlights the importance of perspective knowledge and a sound theoretical understanding of complex systems involved.

Uloga i značaj međunarodnog administrativnog prava u regulisanju statusa službenika međunarodnih organizacija

The aim of this article is to identify, starting from the theoretical framework for considering the activities of international organizations and relevant institutional practices, the basic factors of the legal status of international officials as established in the rules of international administrative law. The article, first of all, defines the concept of international administrative law. Then, the article clarifies the international legal framework for the autonomous regulation of the status of international civil servants by international organizations, and it analyzes the legal sources of international administrative law. Finally, the article points to the influence that international administrative tribunals had on constituting international administrative law and ensuring its effectiveness. The article demonstrates that the basic features of the international civil service are contained in the fact that international organizations, as independent subjects of international law, autonomously regulate issues of importance for their functioning by adopting their own rules. The article also showed that the effectiveness of international administrative law is ensured through the operations of the international administrative tribunals, as a type of judicial body established within the institutional system of an international organization. The article concludes that international administrative law is particular for each international organization, but that there is a similarity between certain concepts and principles that exist in the rules of various international organizations. Considering importance of the international officials in executing the functions of an international organization, international administrative law, as a legal framework that regulates their position and guarantees their independence from individual governments, is of essential legal relevance for the smooth operation of the international organization as an international legal person.

Beyond Peace and Security: The UN Transition Assistance Group in Namibia and its Importance for Contemporary Constitution-Making

In her article “Constitution-Making as a Technique of International Law: Reconsidering the Post-war Inheritance,” Anna Saunders focuses on constitution-making as an international practice of the past three decades and suggests that its “epistemic boundaries”—namely, the separation between the formal and material dimensions of constitution-making and the latter's exclusion from contemporary constitution-making assistance—were primarily established by scholarly work on constitution-making in the post-war era. Saunders explicitly acknowledges that her account is not the only possible history of constitution-making assistance. In this essay, I add a different layer to that history, focusing on the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia. UNTAG is often considered the first instance of international constitution-making assistance, a practice that is generally understood to have emerged after the end of the Cold War. However, UNTAG's mandate, including its constitution-making assistance component, was in fact conceived many years before its actual deployment, dating back to the 1960s and 1970s. The essay shows that UN constitution-making assistance pre-dates the end of the Cold War and is linked to UN efforts to forge modern nation-states in the context of decolonization. I argue that this early case of constitution-making practice was an important blueprint for further iterations of international constitution-making assistance, not least because of the continuous involvement of individual international civil servants. Lastly, the case of Namibia is significantly different from the cases that inspired scholarly work in the post-war era, and we might ask to what extent the post-war inheritance affected this early international practice. I end with a brief reflection on Saunders's call to address the material dimension of constitution-making and caution against overemphasizing substantive questions in constitution-making assistance.

Protection of labor rights of employees of international intergovernmental organizations: theory and practice

The article examines the issue of protection of labor rights of employees of international intergovernmental organizations by means of internal judicial mechanisms. It was noted that rights related to labor relations, including international civil servants, are guaranteed by the provisions of a number of international agreements in the field of human rights, in particular, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (Article 23), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights of 1966 (Art. 7-9). Institutional bodies, in particular, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights paid significant attention to them.
 It is emphasized that the protection of labor rights correlates with the right to social security and covers the right to access benefits, whether in cash or in kind, and enjoy them without discrimination in order to ensure protection.
 The practice of the Dispute Tribunal of the United Nations, the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labor Organization, the Administrative Tribunal of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development regarding consideration of labor disputes between the staff and the administration of the organization was studied.
 It is emphasized that the functioning of internal mechanisms and ensuring access to them is a guarantee of the protection of fundamental rights provided by international acts in the field of human rights. It is indicated that in order to establish the compliance of the internal justice systems of international intergovernmental organizations with international human rights law, the Index of Legitimacy of the Internal Justice Systems of International Organizations was created, since the internal mechanisms for resolving labor disputes may have differences due to the nature and directions of activities of an IGO, which in turn, may have an impact on compliance with the labor rights of its employees.

Proliferation of Standards of Proof in International Administrative Tribunals

Abstract All international organizations have or ought to have a code of conduct. When international civil servants breach their basic obligations and engage in misconduct, they may face disciplinary proceedings and be subject to a wide range of sanctions, including dismissal and other forms of separation from service. However, different international organizations apply dissimilar standards of proof for establishing the alleged facts that constitute misconduct. For instance, in some institutions, the applicable standard of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt”, while in others, it is a balance of probabilities. The lack of consistency is attributable to the jurisprudence of various international administrative tribunals. This article compares how six international administrative tribunals interpret and apply the evidential threshold to disciplinary cases. It identifies practical difficulties caused by a lack of a uniform approach and recommends remedial measures for international organizations and international administrative tribunals.

The behavioural logics of international public servants: the case of African Union Commission staff

Although international organisations (IOs) are created by governments, their international public administrations (IPAs) have succeeded in ring-fencing their resources, and policymaking from direct intervention by member states. Research shows that international civil servants are best able to protect their autonomy when embedded in large and well-resourced IPAs. Staff in large IOs use their huge size, bureaucratic complexities, and different behavioural logics to protect their autonomy and thereby leave a ‘bureaucratic footprint’ in international affairs. Whereas the behavioural logics of large IPAs, mostly headquartered in the Global North, are reasonably well-documented, not much has been written on behavioural logics of international civil servants embedded in small secretariats. We seek to address the gap using the African Union Commission (AUC) staff. Drawing insights from organisational theory and mixed research methods, including the first ever comprehensive survey of AUC staff, the study finds that the AUC staff primarily evoke a departmental behavioural logic. In the absence of departmental logics, the preference of AUC staff is to take on supranational, transnational, and lastly intergovernmental persona. The reluctance of AUC staff to evoke intergovernmental logic is surprising given that the AUC is embedded in an intergovernmental governance architecture.

Harumi Goto-Shibata, 2020. The League of Nations and the East Asian Imperial Order, 1920–1946 Karen Gram-Skjoldager, Haakon A. Ikonomou, and Torsten Kahlert, 2020. Organizing the 20th-century World: International Organizations and the Emergence of International Public Administration, 1920–1960s Deepak Mawar, 2021. States Undermining International Law: The League of Nations, United Nations, and Failed Utopianism Bob Reinalda, 2020. International Secretariats: Two Centuries

"Harumi Goto-Shibata, 2020. The League of Nations and the East Asian Imperial Order, 1920–1946 Karen Gram-Skjoldager, Haakon A. Ikonomou, and Torsten Kahlert, 2020. Organizing the 20th-century World: International Organizations and the Emergence of International Public Administration, 1920–1960s Deepak Mawar, 2021. States Undermining International Law: The League of Nations, United Nations, and Failed Utopianism Bob Reinalda, 2020. International Secretariats: Two Centuries of International Civil Servants and Secretariats" published on 26 Aug 2022 by Brill.

Who Gets to Be a Virtuoso? Diplomatic Competence through an Intersectional Lens

Summary The practice turn in diplomatic studies has focused on how and when diplomats recognise others’ practices as competent. I argue that gendered, raced and classed power shape who is recognised as competent or virtuosic. Denial of recognition reveals how normative conceptions of competence reproduce inequalities in diplomacy. I trace the development and assessment of competence through the autobiographical narratives of Dame Margaret Joan Anstee, a British diplomat, diplomatic wife, international civil servant and then UN special representative in Angola in the 1990s. I find that developing social capital through education was key to allowing Anstee to transcend her working-class origins and enter the upper-class milieu of the post-World War II British Foreign Office. However, as the UN’s first female head of a peacekeeping mission, she struggled to be recognised as a competent actor, even as she took what could be seen as virtuosic action to resource the failing mission.

Employee motivation, job satisfaction, live-work balance, material reward and career aspirations

Edward Affainie is experienced security and international relations professional with years of experience in the Ghana Armed Forces and the United Nations in complex political and security situations. Currently, he is the Deputy Security Adviser for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security in Zimbabwe and a Doctoral Researcher at the Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) Department at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He previously worked at the United Nations Headquarters, where he moderated memorandums of understanding between the United Nations and member states to deploy troops for peacekeeping missions. He deployed and managed complex peacekeeping missions from startup to liquidation and served in various capacities in different peacekeeping missions in countries such as Cambodia, Southern Lebanon, Western Sahara, Liberia, Sudan, and South Sudan. His research interests are in the causes of war and conflict, management, leadership, governance, and security. His extensive length of professional experience as a military officer and an international civil servant contributes to his research interests. He retired from the Ghana Armed Forces at his peak career in 2010 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and as the Deputy Director of Army Peacekeeping Operations at the Army Headquarters. He is a graduate of the Nigeria Command and Staff College and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. Abstract: Companies and Organisations’ existence, stability, and productivity depend mainly on their employees. This essay explores the factors that affect employee motivation, intention, and behaviour. It also examines three of the most recent studies on employee motivation and subsequently analyses these studies’ findings against their chosen theoretical frameworks and assesses their contributions to the framework. The first study by Saraswathi (2011) hypothesises that different professions can influence how employees perceive motivational factors. The second study by Shaikh et al. (2019) hypothesises that motivators and hygiene factors are equally important in improving employee performance. The third study by Kyndt et al. (2012), hypothesises that although intrinsic motivators can contribute to employee’s intention levels, satisfiers may make the inconvenience disappear but do not alter the employees’ intention or behaviours. The paper identifies gaps in knowledge that arise from these studies and further provides future research recommendations to understand employee motivation further. The essay provides gaps in the study of employee motivation for researchers in this field to explore further to contribute to knowledge in the field.

Acquired Rights in International Administrative Law

The acquired rights doctrine limits the ability of an international organisation (io) to unilaterally amend a staff member’s conditions of employment to his or her detriment. The leading international administrative tribunals, especially the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organisation or the ILOAT refined and developed the doctrine’s meaning and scope over decades. There has been a general consensus that the acquired rights doctrine protects a staff member’s essential terms of employment both retrospectively and prospectively. However, in its recent jurisprudence, the United Nations Appeals Tribunal or the UNAT has rendered the acquired rights doctrine with little work to do by reducing it to the principle of non- retroactivity. As a result, the consensus as to the doctrine’s core meaning is now undermined. International civil servants having access to the ILOAT are much better protected from unilateral adverse amendments to their conditions of employment when compared to those international public officials whose organisations have subscribed to the jurisdiction of the UNAT. This is an unwelcome development for the content of substantive protections is now more dependent on the tribunal approach, as opposed to a coherent development of the law.

Can Agenda 2030 bring about “localization”? Policy limitations of Agenda 2030 in the broader global governance system

SummaryMotivationLocalization is an elusive target of international development, aimed at strengthening local ownership through equitable partnerships and redistribution of resources and decision‐making. While this is a long‐standing objective, it remains unachieved. In light of these limitations in global governance, the transformative potential of Agenda 2030 is questioned.PurposeThis article observes policy shifts triggered by Agenda 2030 by analysing its domestication in institutional and national contexts in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. By asking “Can Agenda 2030 bring about localization?” the article examines the policy potential of Agenda 2030 to transform the traditional international development paradigm, as David Slater theorized in 1993.Methods and approachThe article offers interpretive policy analysis and presents insights drawn from 172 interviews and 11 focus group discussions (FGDs) conducted with international and national civil servants, civil society actors, and academics in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, as well as headquarters and regional offices of selected United Nations and donor agencies.FindingsAgenda 2030 emerges as a legitimate framework that creates new policy avenues of national agenda‐setting and multi‐stakeholder co‐ordination. Across all three national contexts, Agenda 2030 was integrated into national agendas, considered to be central development anchors that, however, largely depend on change‐resistant donor structures. This is intensifying critiques of development paradigms among development practitioners, particularly from historically disadvantaged countries.Policy implicationsWhile triggering meaningful shifts in development agenda‐setting, Agenda 2030 has not resulted in political commitments to transform inequitable global development mechanisms that would enable its achievement. Key bottlenecks, in fact, are found not in the insufficient implementation of countries receiving official development assistance, but in the lack of institutional reforms to donor and global governance mechanisms. Political, rather than policy, solutions are required.

Staffing the United Nations: China's motivations and prospects

Abstract A developing public commentary views China as exerting influence in international organizations to legitimize and disseminate PRC foreign policy values and interests. This article examines an understudied source identified by PRC elites to promote influence in the United Nations system: dispatching PRC nationals as international civil servants, specifically in a targeted pursuit of executive leadership positions. Using decades of UN staffing data, we find that apart from Russia, China holds the fewest executive leadership posts among the aspiring and permanent members of the UN Security Council. Moreover, China is yet to lead an agency addressing international security matters. US and European staff contributions are significantly higher at all staffing levels of the international civil service. Still, the data shows that China made modest, targeted gains in most specialized UN agencies, and agencies headed by PRC nationals show faster increases in PRC staff members, though all base numbers were low. We draw from Chinese-language sources to discuss issues facing China in increasing its international civil service numbers, affecting the country's ability to shape global governance.

The 'Third' UN: Imagining Post-COVID-19 Multilateralism.

If the United Nations system is to remain relevant, or even survive, the thinking to re‐imagine and redesign contemporary global governance will come from the Third UN. This article focuses on the ecology of supportive non‐state actors – intellectuals, scholars, consultants, think tanks, NGOs, the for‐profit private sector, and the media – that interacts with the intergovernmental machinery of the First UN and international civil servants of the Second UN to formulate and refine ideas and decision‐making in policy processes. Despite the growth in analyses of non‐state actors in global governance, the ‘other’ or ‘Third’ UN is poorly understood, often ignored, and normally discounted. Some advocate for particular ideas, others help analyze or operationalize their testing and implementation; in any case, many help the UN ‘think’ and have an impact on how we think about the United Nations.

Integrating human rights into sexual and reproductive health research: moving beyond the rhetoric, what will it take to get us there?

ABSTRACT The integration of human rights principles in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research is often recognised to be of value. Good examples abound but lack of clarity persists as to what defines rights-inclusive SRH research. To help move the field forward, this article seeks to explore how key stakeholders responsible for funding and supporting rights in SRH research understand the strengths and weaknesses of what is being done and where, and begins to catalogue potential tools and actions for the future. Interviews with a range of key stakeholders including international civil servants, donors and researchers committed to and supportive of integrating rights into SRH research were conducted and analysed. Interviews confirmed important differences in what is understood to be SRH rights-oriented research and what it can accomplish. General barriers include lack of understanding about the importance of rights; lack of clarity as to the best approach to integration; fear of adding more work with little added benefit; as well as the lack of methodological guidance or published research methodologies that integrate rights. Suggestions include the development of a comprehensive checklist for each phase of research from developing a research statement through ultimately to publication; development of training modules and workshops; inclusion of rights in curricula; changes in journal requirements; and agreement among key funding sources to mandate the integration of rights principles in research proposals they receive. As a next step, cataloguing issues and concerns at local levels can help move the integration of human rights in SRH research from rhetoric to reality.

What International Bureaucrats (Really) Want

Abstract The secretariats of international organizations (international public administrations [IPA s]) constitute the institutional grid of global governance. While recent research has provided valuable insights into the independent capacities of international organizations (IO s) and the influence of IPA s, we lack systematic knowledge of how scholars conceptualize the preferences of IO staff. This is lamentable because understanding the (unifying) motivations of “international civil servants” helps us to make sense of their behavior and influence during the adoption and application of IO policies. To review how IPA studies conceptualize the preferences of international bureaucrats, this article suggests a fourfold typology of ideal-typical bureaucratic behavior. It distinguishes between the underlying behavioral logic and dominant bureaucratic goal orientation. Applying the typology to thirty-nine journal articles allows us to map IPA preferences and behavior, and shows that the literature predominantly views IPA s as behaving responsibly and less self-centeredly than could be expected from economic accounts of bureaucracy.

The United Nations Secretary-General as an International Civil Servant

From the beginnings of the UN Secretariat, its Secretaries-General reached out to a wide audience, considering themselves servants of peace beyond narrow organizational tasks. The article argues that it is the Secretaries-General perception as an international civil servant which led them to endeavour a more expansive role ever since. To unfold this argument, the article, first, traces the international civil servant roots of the Secretary-General. Second, the article illustrates that the themes and rhetorical details of the Secretaries-General inaugural addresses provide a lens to detect and trace the trajectory of the Secretaries-General self-understanding as international civil servants providing the grounds to expand their role. Secretaries-General as international civil servants always embraced the ideal of serving peace, thereby seeking to gain a political role. This international civil servant trajectory illustrates that the role of the UN Secretary-General transcends historical periodization of the UN and sheds light on the evolution of the UN’s global nature and mission.