‘TO BE,BUT NOT TO BE SEEN’: EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL CIVIL SERVANTS

International civil servants (ICS) are largely excluded from the analysis of International Organizations (IOs) because states are assumed to be the determining force in shaping their behaviour. Even principal‐agent and constructivist analyses often treat an IO’s staff as a unit and are concerned primarily with states’ capacities to control IOs. Examining the opportunities of ICS, rather than the choices of states, provides a better means of understanding the capacities of ICS to contribute to the operation of IOs, and especially when they participate in multilateral negotiations. We suggest that structure, competence, legitimacy and culture provide a framework for analysing ICS variable capacity. We use the Secretariat of the WTO, known as a ‘member‐driven organization’, to illustrate how ICS can play a critical role in achieving the IO’s objectives. A word on our title. It comes from Esse, non videri in the original, as quoted by a director at the WTO in an interview in April 2003.     

Inequality,Ethnicity, Political Mobilisation and Political Violence in Latin America: The Cases of Bolivia,Guatemala and Peru*

The paper explores the relationship between political violence and ‘horizontal’ inequality in ethnically‐divided countries in Latin America. The cases studied are Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru. Preliminary results are reported on the measurement of horizontal inequality, or that between groups, defined in cultural, ethnic and/or religious terms. The Latin American cases are shown to be often more unequal than the cases from Africa and Asia included in the wider study of which the work forms a part. The complex relationship between such inequality, ethnicity and political violence is explored historically. Ethnicity is today rarely a mobilising factor in violence in the Latin American cases, but the degree of inequality based on ethnicity is shown to be highly relevant to the degree of violence which results once conflict is instigated. History explains why.     

Interdisciplinary cooperation of forensic sciences--results of a simulation exercise

In a workshop held on the occasion of the foundation of the INFW, the Interdisciplinary Network of Forensic Sciences (www.infw.org), 14 scientists from 10 fields of expertise were allotted to 3 teams. Each team had to independently solve the same fictitious forensic case. In this, several corpses or skeletons in varying degrees of decomposition were found in the remains of an old bunker during a large building project. After a set time limit of 45 minutes, the approaches to the task were noted on individual flipcharts by each team. A comparison of the solutions suggested by the three very heterogeneously composed teams revealed a high degree of similarity. However, particularly the "exotic" disciplines developed surprising approaches. The experiment was an interesting and instructive experience for all participants and underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary cooperation in solving complex forensic questions.