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Some Trends in the International Civil Service

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Peter Lengyel
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Extract

Much has been written about the international civil service. The more serious literature is often produced by those who have had at least a limited personal experience within one or the other of the Secretariats, and some of it is by veterans of many years’ standing. Other writings range all the way from popular attempts to bring home to the wider public the spirit and objectives of this relatively new profession to the kind of running, petty vendettas pursued by certain factions, such as the Beaver brook press in Great Britain and isolationist or xenophobic elements in the United States, France, and elsewhere, against what they conceive to be the thin end of a subversive wedge which will eventually sunder national sovereignties and the freedom of an already largely illusory power of self determination.

Type
Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1959 , pp. 520 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1959

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References

1 Evans, A. A., “Characteristics of an international organization,” Public Administration, Spring 1945, P. 34Google Scholar.

2 Cf. Lie, Trygve, In the Cause of Peace, New York, The Macmillan Company, 1945, p. 34Google Scholar.

3 Crocker, W. R., “Some notes on the UN Secretariat,” International Organization, 11 1950 (Vol. 4. No. 4), p. 611CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Lie, , op. cit., p. 46Google Scholar.

5 Behanan, K. T., Realities and Make-believe: Personnel Policy in the UN Secretariat, New York, William-Frederick Press, 1952, p. 6Google Scholar.

6 Purves, C., The Internal Administration of an International Secretariat, London, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1943, p. 23–26Google Scholar.

7 Loveday, A., Reflections on International Administration, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956, p. 69Google Scholar.

8 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, The United Nations Secretariat, United Nations Studies No. 4, New York, 1950, p. 70–71Google Scholar.

9 Cf. Ranshofen-Wertheimer, E., The International Secretariat, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, 1945, esp. p. 300–304Google Scholar; Royal Institute of International Affairs, The International Secretariat of the Future, London, 1944, p. 24–25Google Scholar; Langrod, G., “Les problèmes fondamentaux de la function publique Internationale,” Revue internationale del sciences administrative, 1953 (No. 1), p. 67–75Google Scholar; and Jenks, C. W., “Some problems of an international civil service,” Public Administration Review, Spring 1943, p. 97–99Google Scholar.

10 Veritable campaigns hostile to the international secretariats are conducted by certain newspapers, such as the London Daily Express and Evening Standard, which seek to demonstrate that a redundant brotherhood united by the privilege of tax-free salaries is hatching a subtle plot contrary to the interests of decent, everyday citizens!

11 Inis Claude, L., Swords into Plowshares, New York, Random House, 1956, p. 395Google Scholar.

12 A distinction must be drawn between confidential contacts which certain international civil servants may maintain with their home administrations, and official liaison undertaken for and on behalf of their organization. The latter is clearly an important function and, if it is in part accomplished somewhat informally through private channels between international and national functionaries, the gains can be considerable. Cf. The International Secretarial of the Future, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 1944, esp. p. 34–36Google Scholar.

13 Jenks, C. W., op. cit., p. 99Google Scholar.

14 Loveday, , op. cit., p. 40Google Scholar.

15 UNESCO Document 10 C/13, p. 4–6.

16 Cf. especially Bedjaoui, M., Fonction publique Internationale el influences rationales, New York, Praeger, 1958, p. 576–618Google Scholar; Cohen, M., “The UN Secretariat,” American journal of International Law, 07 1955Google Scholar; Schwebel, S. M., “The international character of the Secretariat of the UN,” British Yearbook of International Law, 1954Google Scholar; and Honig, F., “The International Civil Service,” International Affairs, 07 1954Google Scholar. The theme is also treated in a novel by Steinhouse, H., The Time of the Juggernaut, New York, Morrow, 1958Google Scholar, and referred to by Trygve Lie, op. cit.

17 Cf. relevant paragraphs in the Staff Regulations and Staff Rules of the UN or any of the specialized agencies.

18 Harold Butler, as quoted inRanshofen-Wertheimer, E., op. cit., p. 244Google Scholar.