AGENCY AND POWER OF INTERNATIONAL BUREAUCRACIES: THE ROLE OF THE UN SECRETARIAT IN THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF STANDARDS

Abstract

This article discusses the agency of the United Nations (UN) bureaucracy in the construction of a normative reference framework for the elaboration of policies and for the performance of activities entrusted to the organization. From a theoretical point of view, the discussion is supported, on the one hand, in the sociological institutionalist literature of International Relations, especially in the argument of Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore about the relative autonomy of bureaucracies and their capacity for agency in the construction of social reality, through the institutionalization of norms and categories that influence the reading of reality, the questions or problems identified in it and the responses given to these by the actors, at different levels. The influence capacity of bureaucracies is partly associated with the accumulated expertise in certain areas of activity. To understand the development of this expertise in the UN bureaucratic structure, we will also resort to the International Public Administration (IPA) literature. From this perspective, the accumulation of specialized knowledge in certain areas occurs thanks to a complex administrative structure that seeks to operate in a coordinated and integrated way in the elaboration and planning of international action, in the monitoring and continuous evaluation of these actions and in learning based on experiences. in the field. From an empirical point of view, the discussion will take place based on the analysis of the role played by the UN Secretariat in the development of multinational peace operations. Therefore, in addition to the introduction and conclusion, the article is structured into two development topics: first, the bureaucracies are theoretically approached as agents in the international system, with the capacity to influence international politics; and second, theoretical knowledge is applied in observing the performance of the UN Secretariat in operationalizing decisions and normative directions related to peace operations. We conclude by emphasizing that the understanding of international bureaucracies as relatively autonomous actors allows a critical reflection on the relevance of International Organizations in the dynamics of the process of formulating international politics and in the construction of social reality, especially in the current moment, when the COVID-19 pandemic has been calling into question the capacity of International Organizations to deal with collective problems within their respective areas of activity.