Introduction

Issues of peace and security, so-called ‘high-politics’, frequently take centre stage in debates on the UN. This book has been no exception, as the previous chapters all focused on the repeating cycles of high-level political crises, and Lie’s attempts to deal with these as secretary-general. Lie chose to focus most of his attention and energy on the political role of the UN secretary-general and the questions of peace and security discussed by the Security Council. Yet, to understand the process by which the UN Charter was transformed from paper to practice, the establishment of the UN Secretariat itself is also of crucial importance. As the previous chapters showed, in these early years after an organization has been established, while the rules are still fluid, individuals working in the organization have wide room for manoeuvre and can influence the establishment of precedents for the future. It therefore matters also what kind of organizational structures are set up and which formal and informal rules develop for the secretariat itself.

This chapter examines the initial establishment of the UN Secretariat, focused particularly on the norms associated with the International Civil Service (ICS). The ICS is both an empirical and a normative concept. As an empirical concept it refers simply to the staff working for international organizations. The term as such was first adopted by the League of Nations and later continued in the UN system. But with the designation of staff as ICS in purely descriptive terms, there also follows certain normative expectations. The ICS offers an ideal vision for how staff should act and who they should be.