Great Britain and the International Civil Service, 1945–1975

This paper examines the British role in the formation of an international civil service, focusing on the period 1945-1975.  After the Second World War, the rise of new multilateral institutions including the United Nations, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund restructured international relations in many ways.  One of these was the gradual emergence of a defined group of international civil servants that worked for these organizations.

This paper analyzes British contributions to the international civil service using sources collected from the United Nations Career Records Project at Oxford University.  The British contributed a significant percentage of early international civil servants, including academics, engineers, doctors, or people with specific technical or administrative skills who worked in agencies like the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, the World Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the United Nations Development Programme, and the World Bank.  Life as an international civil servant could be very different depending on where an individual worked or what he or she was doing. They had a variety of motivations for joining the international civil service and varied experiences within it.  British involvement in the international civil service helped redefine Great Britain’s role in the postwar era while also helping to shape the development of international organizations.  The study of the international civil service adds depth and nuance to historians’ understanding of international organizations in the postwar era.