Description:
Building on the concept of depoliticization, this book provides a first systematic analysis of International Organizations (IO) apolitical claims. It shows that depoliticization sustains IO everyday activities while allowing them to remain engaged in politics, even when they pretend not to.
Review Quotes:
"In this superb book, Lucile Maertens and Marieke Louis open a new research agenda on the depoliticization of international organizations. They do it in a way that is analytical, sophisticated, and yet engaging because it is grounded in real empirical puzzles." - Frédéric Mérand, University of Montreal, Canada.
"This book is the final nail in the functionalist coffin of depoliticized global governance. Thanks to a rich analysis of everyday practices inside international organizations, Louis and Maertens show how little-understood professional and institutional logics lead civil servants and diplomats to portray politics as an obstacle to global governance--when it is in fact its irreducible condition." - Vincent Pouliot, McGill University, Canada.
"The first systematic study on practices and logics of depoliticization within international organizations. A conceptually sophisticated and empirically rich book which sheds new light on international politics." - Guillaume Devin, Sciences Po Paris, France.