Remaking the International Civil Service: The Legacies of British Internationalism in the United Nations Secretariat, 1945–7

Abstract

Abstract While Great Britain’s influence upon the League of Nations Secretariat has been extensively studied, its role in the United Nations Secretariat has not received the same attention, despite high British representation in the organization’s first decades. This article examines concurrent debates on the location and staffing of the United Nations from 1945 to 1947 to argue that British officials saw representation in the United Nations administration as a way to extend the version of internationalism they had institutionalized at the League, based on ideas of administrative neutrality, expertise, and efficiency, which favoured Britain’s empire and global influence. These discussions illustrate a clear focus on administration, despite principles of staff neutrality and geographic representation, and despite the rise of the United States and anticolonialism. However, this article shows, these developments impacted the international civil service in ways that diminished Britain’s influence. It was in siting and staffing the new international organization that British officials realized their old tactics would no longer work, with implications for Britain’s world role and empire that extended far beyond the Secretariat.