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ABSTRACT
The UN Secretariat’s role in the expansion of peacekeeping after the cold war is debated. Different theoretical accounts offer competing interpretations: principal–agent models and sociological institutionalism tend to emphasize the Secretariat’s risk-averse behaviour; organizational learning scholarship and international political sociology find evidence of the Secretariat’s activism; constructivism analyses instances of both. I argue that the UN Secretariat can be both enthusiastic and cautious about new tasks depending on the circumstances and the issue area. For example, UN officials have been the driving force behind the development of public information campaigns by peacekeeping missions aimed at the local population. During the cold war, it was not regarded as necessary for UN missions to communicate with the public in the area of operation: their interlocutors were parties to the conflict and the diplomatic community. With the deployment of the first multidimensional missions in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, UN staff realized the need to explain the organization’s role to the local population and provide information about UN-supported elections. In promoting this innovation, they played the role of policy entrepreneurs. The institutionalization of this innovation, however, was not an automatic process and required continuous advocacy by UN information staff.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Vincenzo Bove, John Karlsrud, and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on the draft. I would also like to thank Raffaele Marchetti and René Schwok for their support during the early stages of this project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
About the Author
Kseniya Oksamytna is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of European & International Studies at King's College London. She has previously taught at the University of Warwick. She holds a PhD from LUISS and the University of Geneva.
Notes
1 Mei, Radio UNTAC, 21.
2 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
3 This excludes small observer missions, such as the first UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM I, 1989–1991) which consisted of 80 military observers and the UN Aouzou Strip Observer Group (UNASOG) which consisted of nine observers and six civilian staff, as well as the follow-on missions to UNPROFOR.
4 Pollack, Engines of European Integration, 35.
5 Dijkstra, International Organizations, 8, 38.
6 Doyle and Sambanis, Making War, 189.
7 Kamradt-Scott, “The WHO Secretariat,” 86.
8 Bauer et al., “Understanding International Bureaucracies,” 25.
9 Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide, 3.
10 Carney, Interview by Kennedy, 110.
11 Karns, “The Roots of UN,” 83.
12 Ibid., 74.
13 Paddon Rhoads, Taking Sides, 106.
14 Weinlich, The UN Secretariat’s Influence, 220.
15 Benner, Mergenthaler, and Rotmann, The New World.
16 Bode, Individual Agency, 2.
17 Karlsrud, Norm Change.
18 Winckler, “Exceeding Limitations,” 60.
19 Mintrom, Policy Entrepreneurs, 33.
20 Park and Vetterlein, “Owning Development,” 4.
21 Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders.
22 Ibid., 6.
23 Interview with Mikhail Seliankin, telephone, January 2013.
24 Checkel, “Why Comply?” 563.
25 Ulbert, Risse, and Müller, “Arguing and Bargaining,” 29.
26 Kuklinski and Hurley, “It’s a Matter of Interpretation,” 127.
27 Johnston, Social States, 159.
28 Risse, “Let’s Argue!” 7.
29 Checkel, “Why Comply?” 562.
30 Johnston, Social States, 160.
31 Deitelhoff, ‘The Discursive Process of Legalization’, 54.
32 Checkel, “Norms, Institutions,” 86.
33 Johnston, Social States, 159.
34 Checkel, “Why Comply?” 562.
35 Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders, 22.
36 Karlsrud, Norm Change, 142.
37 Finnemore and Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics.”
38 UN DPI, Policy and Guidance, 5.
39 MacQueen, Peacekeeping and the International System.
40 Findlay, The Use of Force, 78.
41 UN, “West New Guinea.”
42 Thornberry, A Nation Is Born, 64.
43 UN DPI, Policy and Guidance, 5.
44 UN, “Summary of AG-076.”
45 UN DPI, Policy and Guidance, 5–6.
46 UN, Report of the Secretary-General on Western Sahara, 4.
47 Van der Lijn, Walking the Tightrope, 281.
48 Wrobel and de Oliverra, Managing Arms, 187.
49 Vines, Angola Unravels, 231.
50 Ibid.
51 Avruch, Narel, and Siegel, Information Campaigns, 154.
52 O’Neill and Rees, United Nations Peacekeeping, 130.
53 Avruch, Narel, and Siegel, Information Campaigns, 23.
54 UN, “Statement by ASG for Public Information,” 31.
55 Avruch, Narel, and Siegel, Information Campaigns, 158.
56 Carney, Interview by Kennedy, 108.
57 Ibid.
58 DPI, Provisional Guidelines.
59 Howard, UN Peacekeeping, chapter 6.
60 UN, Secretary-General’s Report on Liberia.
61 UNOMIG PIO, “UNOMIG Press Release.”
62 UN, “Summary of AG-067.”
63 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information.
64 Ibid., 4.
65 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
66 UN, The Blue Helmets, 220.
67 Howard, UN Peacekeeping, 65 (emphasis in original).
68 Howard, UN Peacekeeping, 66.
69 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
70 Eckhard, Interview by Sutterlin, 28.
71 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
72 Ibid.
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid.
75 Winckler, “Exceeding Limitations,” 45.
76 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information, 33.
77 Ibid.
78 Eckhard, Interview by Sutterlin, 13.
79 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information.
80 Eckhard, Interview by Sutterlin, 13.
81 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
82 Ibid. P5 is the highest UN career grade before the Director level.
83 Bode, Individual Agency.
84 Interview with Mikhail Seliankin, telephone, January 2013.
85 Interview with Mikhail Seliankin, telephone, January 2013.
86 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 UN, Secretary-General’s Report on Cambodia, 38–9.
90 Stedman, “Spoiler Problem,” 31.
91 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
92 Carney, Interview by Kennedy, 104.
93 Carney, “UNTAC’s Information/Education Programme,” 173.
94 Labonte, “R2P’s Status as a Norm,” 137; Thakur, “R2P and the Interplay,” 162.
95 Shawcross, Deliver Us from Evil, 58–9.
96 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
97 Twining, Interview by Kennedy, 149.
98 Shawcross, Deliver Us from Evil, 58.
99 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
100 Doyle, “Authority and Elections,” 152.
101 UN DPI, Policy and Guidance, 6.
102 Doyle and Sambanis, Making War, 221.
103 UN, Resolution 783, 3.
104 Kamradt-Scott, “The WHO Secretariat,” 81.
105 Mei, Radio UNTAC, 33–5.
106 Findlay, Cambodia, 76.
107 Ibid., 63–4.
108 UN, Resolution 947, 2.
109 Manuel, “Reviving War’s First Casualty,” 38.
110 Thompson, Slovenia, 14.
111 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information, 133.
112 Thompson and De Luce, “Escalating to Success?” 203.
113 Thompson, Slovenia, 19.
114 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information, 23.
115 Thompson and De Luce, “Escalating to Success?” 203.
116 Thompson, Slovenia, 17.
117 Manuel, “Reviving War’s First Casualty.”
118 UN DPKO, Comprehensive Report, 42.
119 UN, “Secretary-General’s Report on Rwanda,” 12.
120 UN DPKO, Comprehensive Report, 44.
121 Des Forges, “Call to Genocide,” 46.
122 UNAMIR, “Update on Security Situation,” 3.
123 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
124 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information, 98.
125 UN DPKO, Comprehensive Report, 42.
126 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
127 Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information, 25.
128 UN, “Fourth Committee 26th Meeting,” 3.
129 Interview with Ingrid Lehmann, FaceTime, May 2017.
130 Ibid.
131 Ibid.
132 UN, Report of the Panel on UN Peace Operations, 25.
133 Interview with Susan Manuel, New York, January 2013.
134 Interview with Mikhail Seliankin, telephone, January 2013.
135 Lindley, Promoting Peace, 210–11.
136 Interview with Mikhail Seliankin, telephone, January 2013.
137 Interview with André-Michel Essoungou, New York, January 2013.