From the inside flap: The questions posed by this book are to what extent, how and why international bureaucracies challenge and supplement the inherent Westphalian intergovernmental order based on territorial sovereignty. To what extent, how and why do international bureaucracies supplement the existing international intergovernmental order with a multi-dimensional international order subjugated by a compound set of decision-making dynamics? The ambition of this book is to rediscover international bureaucracies as a key engine of international organisations in particular, and as one important component of modern public administration more generally. International bureaucracies constitute a distinct and increasingly important feature of public administration studies.
However, the role of international bureaucracies has been largely neglected in most social science sub-disciplines. This book takes a first step into a third generation of international organisation (IO) studies. Paradoxically, this entails the ‘normalisation’ of the study of international organisations. Until now studies of international bureaucracy have largely lacked comparative designs. This book systematically explores the everyday decision-making dynamics within three international bureaucracies: the administration of the European Commission, the OECD Secretariat, and the WTO Secretariat.
This will make valuable reading for academics in politics and international relations as well as practitioners in public administration in domestic governments and international organizations. The book contains factual information as well as comparative assessments of international bureaucracies that will be of interest to those working in such organizations.