Political Ethics and The United Nations: The Political Philosophy of Dag Hammarskjold (Cass Series on Peacekeeping)

272 Pages·2007·1.39 MB·English

by  Manue Froehlich

Political Ethics and
the United Nations
Based on a wealth of sources, fi les and interviews, and including previously
unpublished material, this book explores the foundations of the political ethics
of Dag Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations, and
examines how they infl uenced his actions in several key crisis situations.
Hammarskjöld’s political innovations, such as the creation of peacekeeping
forces, the use of private diplomacy and the concept of the international civil
service, were bold attempts at translating the aims and principles of the UN
charter into concrete thought and action. Kofi Annan described Hammarskjöld’s
approach as a useful guideline to dealing with the problems of a globalised world.
Offering a topical perspective on a subject that has not recently been explored,
this book analyses Hammarskjöld’s successes and failures in a way which offers
insights into contemporary problems, and in doing so provides a signifi cant and
original contribution to UN studies.
This book will be of interest to students of the United Nations, Peace Studies,
and International Relations in general.
Manuel Fröhlich is Junior Professor for Political Science at the Friedrich-Schiller
University of Jena.
The Cass Series on Peacekeeping
ISSN 1367–9880
General Editor: Michael Pugh
This series examines all aspects of peacekeeping, from the political, operational
and legal dimensions to the developmental and humanitarian issues that must be
dealt with by all those involved with peacekeeping in the world today.
1 Beyond the Emergency 8 Peacekeeping and Confl ict
Development within UN missions Resolution
Edited by Jeremy Ginifer Edited by Oliver Ramsbotham and
Tom Woodhouse
2 The UN, Peace and Force
Edited by Michael Pugh 9 Managing Armed Confl icts in the
21st Century
3 Mediating in Cyprus Edited by Adekeye Adebajo and
The Cypriot communities and the Chandra Lekha Sriram
United Nations
Oliver P. Richmond 10 Women and International
Peacekeeping
4 Peacekeeping and the UN Agencies Edited by Louise Olsson and Torunn
Edited by Jim Whitman L. Tryggestad
5 Peacekeeping and Public 11 Recovering from Civil Confl ict
Information: Caught in the Reconciliation, peace and
Crossfi re development
Ingrid A. Lehman Edited by Edward Newman and
Albrecht Schnabel
6 US Peacekeeping Policy under
Clinton 12 Mitigating Confl ict
A fairweather friend? The role of NGOs
Michael MacKinnon Edited by Henry F. Carey and
Oliver P. Richmond
7 Peacebuilding and Police Reform
Edited by Tor Tanke Holm and 13 Ireland and International
Espen Barth Eide Peacekeeping 1960–2000
A study of Irish motivation
Katsumi Ishizuka
14 Peace Operations after 21 International Sanctions
11 September 2001 Between words and wars in the global
Edited by Thierry Tardy system
Edited by Peter Wallensteen and
15 Confronting Past Human Rights Carina Staibano
Violation
Justice vs peace in times of transition 22 Nordic Approaches to Peace
Chandra Lekha Sriram Operations
A new Nordic model in the making
16 The National Politics of Peter Viggo Jakobsen
Peacekeeping in the Post-Cold War
Era 23 Kosovo between War and Peace
Edited by Pia Christina Wood and Nationalism, peacebuilding and
David S. Sorensen international trusteeship
Edited by Tonny Brems Knudsen and
17 A UN ‘Legion’ Carsten Bagge Laustsen
Between Utopia and reality
Stephen Kinloch-Pichat 24 Clinton, Peacekeeping and
Humanitarian Interventionism
18 United Nations Peacekeeping in the Rise and fall of a policy
Post-Cold War Era Leonie Murray
John Terence O’Neill and
Nicholas Rees 25 Political Ethics and the United
Nations
19 The Military and Negotiation The political philosophy of Dag
The role of the soldier–diplomat Hammarskjöld
Deborah Goodwin Manuel Fröhlich
20 NATO and Peace Support
Operations 1991–1999
Policies and doctrines
Henning-A. Frantzen

Political Ethics and
the United Nations
Dag Hammarskjöld
as Secretary-General
Manuel Fröhlich
First published 2008
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2007.
“To purchaseyourown copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2008 Manuel Fröhlich
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fröhlich, Manuel
[Dag Hammarskjöld und die Vereinten Nationen. English]
Political ethics and the United Nations: the political philosophy of Dag
Hammarskjöld / Manuel Fröhlich.
p. cm.
Translated from German.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Hammarskjöld, Dag, 1905–1961. 2. United Nations–Biography.
3. Political ethics. 4. World politics–1955–1965. I. Title.
D839.7.H3F76 2007
341.23092–dc2
[B] 2007015927
ISBN 0-203-93391-5 Mastere-bookISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–44532–9 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–44532–0 (hbk)
Contents
Foreword to the English edition ix
Preface xi
Abbreviations xiii
1 Introduction 1
The challenge of ‘international leadership’ 3
The topic in literature 7
Line of argumentation and sources 10
2 The offi ce of the UN Secretary-General 15
The position of the Secretary-General according to the
Charter 16
Dag Hammarskjöld’s conception of the UN, the Charter
and his offi ce 24
Excursion: the writing of Hammarskjöld’s annual
reports 26
Summary: political ethics as a power resource of the
Secretary-General 44
3 Principal elements of Dag Hammarskjöld’s political ethics 49
Biographical infl uences: the Swedish tradition of an
impartial civil service 51
‘The only true profi le’: Hammarskjöld’s spiritual diary 60
Christian mysticism: serving in the imitation of Christ 75
Albert Schweitzer: a new ideology of co-existence 91
Martin Buber: genuine dialogue as a precondition of peace 103
Summary: personal ethics and international responsibility 116
viii Contents
4 Connections between ethical thought and political action 125
Work routines in the UN Secretariat: Hammarskjöld’s
team 126
The instrument of ‘private diplomacy’ 132
UN presence and blue helmets 148
The ‘international civil servant’ 164
Summary: the ethical content of international cooperation
and organization according to Hammarskjöld 174
5 The Hammarskjöld tradition 183
Relevance and limits of Hammarskjöld’s political ethics 183
The Hammarskjöld tradition and its adoption by his
successors 191
Kofi Annan and the contemporary relevance of the
Hammarskjöld tradition 209
Notes 217
Bibliography 226
Index 252
Foreword to the English edition
This book is a revised and updated version of Dag Hammarskjöld und die Vereinten
Nationen: Die politische Ethik des UNO-Generalsekretärs published in 2002 by
Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag. The text, especially the references with further
material and quotations, have been substantially shortened while a number of
recent events concerning the tenure of Kofi Annan and his place in the tradition of
Dag Hammarskjöld have been integrated into the book. These changes, however,
have not altered but rather reinforced the general conclusions drawn in 2002.
The realization of this book would not have happened without the invaluable
support and help of many people. I should like to thank Prof. Dr. Klaus Dicke
(University of Jena) for his academic inspiration. I am deeply indebted to Sir Brian
Urquhart whose unequalled experience both in UN affairs and as Hammarskjöld’s
fi rst biographer repeatedly opened up new perspectives in my work. My thanks
also go to the various interview partners who provided a number of insights not
available in other sources and to Sibyl Stokar for a continuous dialogue on various
aspects of Hammarskjöld’s life and work. Last, but not least, I am grateful for the
assistance of Prof. Michael Pugh and his offer to include the book in the Cass
Series on Peacekeeping. My thanks go also to the anonymous reviewers of the
manuscript.
The English translation of the book has come about due to the excellent work
of John Richardson. Dr. Klaus Kübel (University of Jena) provided crucial help
in fi nding the resources needed to fund such an endeavour. Preparing the text for
publication, proof-reading and research on literature was quite a tremendous task
and I am grateful for the invaluable support of Sylvia Lenke, Stefan Ipach, Martin
Wieczorek, Jochen Moss, Christoph Sperfeldt, Ricky Wichum, Roger Lipsey and
Jonathan Lowell Gibbs who in different stages of the project were engaged in its
realization. Wherever possible, I have tried to quote primary sources from the
relevant English editions. When that was not possible, I decided on a translation
of German texts not available in English.
Since this book for a huge part relies on archival material I cannot thank enough
Marilla Guptil of the United Nations Archive in New York and Jack Zawistowski of
the Royal Library in Stockholm for their assistance. I am also indebted to the Dag
Hammarskjöld Foundation and Olle Nordberg, its chairman, for countless stimuli
and unfl agging support. My parents Fred and Christa as well as my siblings Anna-