Expert bodies and organizational culture(s) in international organizations

This chapter applies the perspective that international organizations (IOs) have their distinct organizational cultures. Analyzing such cultures is challenging due to the generally broad and contested meaning of the term “culture.” Governance in IOs is not only exercised through diplomats or international bureaucrats. Expert committees are increasingly established to take over governance functions in IOs like treaty monitoring, policy formulation or staff recruitment. While exercising such functions, their outputs have considerable influence on policies adopted by other IO bodies or national policymakers. This chapter explores expert bodies in IOs as subjects for the study of IO governance and organizational culture(s). After giving a brief overview of the IR scholarship on organizational culture in IOs, the specifics of expert committees as IO bodies are discussed. The chapter focuses on IO culture literature dealing with professional cultures, and on the literature on experts and expertise in IOs. After empirically illustrating expert committees and their professional cultures in the field of human rights, the chapter concludes with a summary of the role of organizational culture for governance in IO expert bodies and provides incentives for future research.