Individual Agency and Policy Change at the United Nations: The People of the United Nations PDF
Preview Individual Agency and Policy Change at the United Nations: The People of the United Nations
Bode’s innovative study extends understanding of individual agency in United Nations decision-making in vital new directions. The work is analytically rich and compelling, and serves as a valuable resource for those interested in inter- national organization, international bureaucracy, decision-making, and tracing new ideas in the global arena, along with providing illuminating details on Francis Deng, Marrack Goulding, and Mahbub ul Haq. Kent Kille, Professor of Political Science, The College of Wooster, USA This page intentionally left blank Individual Agency and Policy Change at the United Nations This book highlights how temporary international civil servants play a crucial role in initiating processes of legal and institutional change in the United Nations (UN) system. These individuals are the ‘missing’ creative elements needed to fully understand the emergence and initial spread of UN ideas such as human development, sovereignty as responsibility and multi-f unctional peacekeeping. The book: • Shows that that temporary UN officials are an actor category which is empirically crucial, yet usually neglected in analytical studies of the UN system. Focusing on these particular individual actors therefore allows for a better understanding of complex UN decision- making. • Demonstrates how these civil servants matter, looking at what their agency is based on. Offering a new and distinctive model, Bode seeks to move towards a comprehensive conceptualization of individual agency, which is currently conspicuous for its absence in many theoretical approaches that address policy change. • Uses three key case studies of international civil servants (Francis Deng, Mahbub ul Haq and Marrack Goulding) to explore the possibilities of this specific group of UN individuals to act as agents of change and thereby test the prevailing notion that international bureaucrats can only act as agents of the status quo. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international organizations and the UN. Ingvild Bode is a JSPS postdoctoral fellow in the Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability at the United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan. Routledge research on the United Nations 1 Chairing Multilateral Negotiations The case of the United Nations Spyros Blavoukos and Dimitris Bourantonis 2 Individual Agency and Policy Change at the United Nations The people of the United Nations Ingvild Bode Individual Agency and Policy Change at the United Nations The people of the United Nations Ingvild Bode First published 2015 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2015 Ingvild Bode The right of Ingvild Bode to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bode, Ingvild. Individual agency and policy change at the United Nations : the people of the United Nations / Ingvild Bode. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. International officials and employees. 2. United Nations–Officials and employees. 3. Economic development. 4. Human rights. 5. Peace-building. I. Title. JZ5005.B634 2015 341.23–dc23 2014037938 ISBN: 978-1-138-80688-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-75143-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear For Edda This page intentionally left blank Contents List of figures x List of tables xi Acknowledgements xii List of abbreviations xiv 1 Introduction 1 2 The agency of empowered individuals 16 3 Accounting for the influence of empowered individuals in the United Nations system: the constitutive empowerment model 32 4 Mahbub ul Haq and the idea of human development 69 5 Francis Deng and the concern for internally displaced persons 108 6 Marrack Goulding and the diversification of peacekeeping 143 7 Conclusion 189 Appendix 201 Index 202
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