Persistence Against the Odds: How Entrepreneurial Agents Helped the UN Joint Inspection Unit to Prevail

Heldt, Eugénia C.; Mello, Patrick A.; Novoselova, Anna; Serrano, Omar Ramon (2022). Persistence Against the Odds: How Entrepreneurial Agents Helped the UN Joint Inspection Unit to Prevail Global Policy, 13(2), pp. 235-246. Wiley-Blackwell 10.1111/1758-5899.13048

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Since its inception in 1966, the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has prevailed in the face of significant existential challenges. Against this backdrop, we investigate how and why the JIU persisted over time. Combining delegation and historical institutionalist approaches, we posit that entrepreneurial agents and layering processes together help us better understand persistence of international organizations. Based on semi-structured interviews with UN staff and JIU inspectors, we examine three critical junctures in the history of the JIU. Our results show that entrepreneurial agents and stakeholders in the JIU managed to avoid the closure or demotion of the JIU by engaging in a strategy of institutional layering. Our analysis, however, also demonstrates that the JIU survived at the price of losing its privilege as the central UN oversight body. These findings have implications for the study of international organizations and for the reform of the UN system at large.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

Business School > Institute for Marketing & Global Management > Global Management
Business School

Name:

Heldt, Eugénia C.;
Mello, Patrick A.;
Novoselova, Anna and
Serrano, Omar Ramon0000-0002-7396-7891

Subjects:

J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
J Political Science > JZ International relations

ISSN:

1758-5880

Publisher:

Wiley-Blackwell

Language:

English

Submitter:

Omar Ramon Serrano

Date Deposited:

16 Oct 2023 10:04

Last Modified:

16 Oct 2023 10:04

Publisher DOI:

10.1111/1758-5899.13048

ARBOR DOI:

10.24451/arbor.19506

URI:

https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/19506

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