What is an International Civil Servant

I was recently looking through a book on UNESCO written by its former employees, and came across "De ce que nous sommes…" by René Maheu, a former Director General of the Organization. He addressed the question of what is an international civil servant.

He said, wisely, that he could not define what constitutes an international civil servant, but he could identify some things that such a person is not. Of course, the question is not, simply, that an international civil servant is someone who works for an intergovernmental organization. Not only do people work for these organizations who are not international civil servants, but the more fundamental question is on the characteristics that make one a good international civil servant.

Nationality

Maheu points out that when one becomes an international civil servant (ICS), one does not give up one's nationality. I have worked in three intergovernmental organizations consulted with more, and no one ever missed the fact that I am a Yank.

On the other hand, an ICS is also not a person who represents the government and policies of his country within an intergovernmental organization. That is a rule that is sometimes broken, but is fundamental to the job.

An ICS works in support of the mission of the intergovernmental organization for which he works, and indeed to defend that organization when appropriate, and does so with the knowledge that (almost always) his home country is a member state of the organization and expects its citizen employees of the organization to act in that way.

Technical Expert versus Technocrat

Maheu says that the ICS is first a technical expert in one of the areas of competence of his organization. However, he/she is not a technocrat, or one who believes that technical experts rather than legitimate representatives of governments should make decisions. The ICS lends his technical expertise, but leaves political power in the hands of political authorities.

Outsiders

When working in a member state, the ICS is clearly to be an outsider, one who does not represent a political faction or interest within the country. (Of course, a lot of us sought to represent the poor and needy when conducting our work, but then most intergovernmental organizations have that as part of their missions.) An ICS is often someone who can say something that everyone knows and understands, but which could not be accepted from a spokesperson for any domestic faction.

When working in headquarters, typically interfacing with people from many different countries, the ICS is someone who represents the concerns of the international organization itself rather than those of any of any one of its individual member states. Since intergovernmental organizations are important fora for discussions among representatives of governments of member states, or experts chosen to come from a wide variety of nations and cultures, they must have the capacity to be relatively neutral fora, and their functionaries to represent the organizational neutrality.

The individual expert

I have also been invited to participate in fora in intergovernmental organizations as an individual. In those instances, too, it was my technical expertise that was sought. And iin those situations, too, I was clearly understood by others to be a Yank by citizenship and culture. Yet there too, I was not a representative of my government. I was there to give my own opinion, and not to state an opinion dictated by a bureaucratic process within my government. Equally, I was not there to represent the interests and mission of an intergovernmental organization. Still there is a lot of similarity to the role of an individual expert called to participate in an international context and that of an ICS. Both should strive to give their best technical judgments honestly and diplomatically.