The Gloss of Harmony The Politics of Policy-Making in Multilateral Organisations

This fascinating book is an anthropological foray into international institutions. It reveals a world of equal sovereignty cross-cut by deep inequalities of power. As the UN grapples with an increasing number of intractable global crises, it copes by translating political controversies into technical problems. -- Sally Engle Merry, author of 'Human Rights and Gender Violence' Highly recommended. -- Tania Murray Li, author 'The Will to Improve' This book brings new perspectives in anthropology of transnational organizations. It affords an invaluable contribution to a better knowledge of globalization and of the functioning of power mechanisms which transcend the state level. -- Marc Abeles, Research Director CNRS/EHESS Paris, author of 'The Politics of Survival' These ethnographic studies shed valuable light on how UN agencies work, how global norms are constructed and negotiated, and how the veneer of consensus is manufactured, often in ways that serve to reproduce the authority of these UN agencies themselves. Essential reading for anyone interested in the analysis of multilateral organizations, Birgit Muller and her colleagues have opened up important new directions for the anthropology of organizations. -- Cris Shore, The University of Auckland