The UN Secretariat’s Influence on the Evolution of Peacekeeping

Weinlich, Silke

doi:10.1057/9781137309358

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…To prepare an assessment for the UNSC, UN officials gather information from a variety of sources and go on a fact-finding to the ground (UN 2009b: 11-13). Their data is processed by the more than 600 a-grade inhouse experts in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) (Dijkstra 2012;Weinlich 2014). UN officials consider alternatives and make estimations about the required resources.…”

Section: Control Mechanisms and Shadow Bureaucraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shadow bureaucracies and the unilateral control of international secretariats: Insights from UN peacekeeping

Dijkstra

2014

Rev Int Organ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While formal decision power in most international organizations rests with the member states, the member states often delegate the preparation of decisions to international secretariats. To prepare decisions, secretariats gather and analyze information and subsequently provide the member states with an assessment on the alternative courses of action. In this process, secretariats may accumulate an information surplus over the member states. They can use this advantage to suggest options close to their own interests. This article argues that, to counter such agency problem, the member states unilaterally invest in shadow bureaucracies with the aim to reduce informational asymmetries. Shadow bureaucracies are, however, costly. Member states have to weigh agency costs against the costs of domestic administrative capability. Strong states with outlier preferences are most likely to invest in shadow bureaucracies. They have most to gain. The use of shadow bureaucracies not only reduces agency costs. It also allows states more control over policy in international organizations. This article uses insights from peacekeeping in the United Nations to illustrate the argument.

show abstract

Section: Control Mechanisms and Shadow Bureaucraciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shadow bureaucracies and the unilateral control of international secretariats: Insights from UN peacekeeping

Dijkstra

2014

Rev Int Organ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…13 One author may use the word "influence" to describe a certain phenomenon that is described as "power" by another author. Moreover, some authors use the two terms as synonyms in a single article or book (e.g., Thomson & Hosli, 2006;Weinlich, 2014). One advantage of using the terms interchangeably, as Zimmerling (2005, p. 99) points out, is that "theories which say something about power, but nothing specifically about influence -such as most normative theories concerned with the justification of political system -do nevertheless not suffer from an 'influence gap.…”

Section: The Lack Of Clear Definitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many empirical studies fall short of making their research strategies transparent and intersubjectively comprehensible for identifying and assessing influence of political entities, such as national or international bureaucracies, interest groups, and so on (Weinlich, 2014). Nevertheless, when reviewing the existing literature on influence of policy actors, some common determinants emerge and these help build the foundation of the framework for analysis.…”

Section: Three Dimensions and Three Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, measuring influence objectively is quite hard, particularly in complex decision-making (Arts & Verschuren, 1999). Weinlich (2014) To find out what constitutes influence, the definition of influence should be recalled. In Section 2.4.1, influence of EU agencies is defined as the ability to shape the content of (policy) output by providing (partly or completely) the set of alternatives to decision-maker(s).…”

Section: Measuring Influence Of Eu Agenciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This might lead to the problem of equifinality. It could be the case that other actors with similar advice and text and/or other explanatory factors could have influenced the Commission (Weinlich, 2014). Then, attaining agencies' goal or preference is due to sheer luck rather than actual influence (Dür et al, 2015;Klüver, 2009Klüver, , 2013.…”

Section: Text Comparisonmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Influence of EU Agencies

Kim

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

show abstract

Disentangling the Notion of Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs: Concluding Remarks

Zeigermann

2020

Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The UN Secretariat’s Influence on the Evolution of Peacekeeping

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Shadow bureaucracies and the unilateral control of international secretariats: Insights from UN peacekeeping

Shadow bureaucracies and the unilateral control of international secretariats: Insights from UN peacekeeping

The Influence of EU Agencies

Disentangling the Notion of Transnational Policy Entrepreneurs: Concluding Remarks

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About