The international civil service

Abstract

The international civil service (ICS) offers — in theory at least — an ideal model of administration within international organizations. This chapter explores the origins and evolution of the ICS from the classical model following the First World War to the twenty-first century era. For its early supporters, the ICS was the international community’s hope for the peaceful coexistence of states and functional cooperation. Yet tensions between these normative ideals and the reality facing international secretariats have never been resolved. The ICS operates under tremendous pressure from states, and in the twenty-first century, increasingly from the global public too. How does an ICS ethos that was developed in the early twentieth century travel to the twenty-first century? Is the concept still relevant today? Show more