Author Archives: Guy Fiti Sinclair

About Guy Fiti Sinclair

Guy Fiti Sinclair is Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law. His first book, To Reform the World: International Organizations and the Making of Modern States (Oxford University Press, 2017), examines how international organizations have expanded their powers over time without formally amending their founding treaties, and particularly focuses on the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, and the World Bank. This book won the 2018 European Society of International Law Book Prize. He is currently working on a project exploring the institutional formation of international economic law.

Forging Modern States with Imperfect Tools: United Nations Technical Assistance for Public Administration in Decolonized States

May 14, 2020 by
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Abstract: This article examines the UN’s programs of technical assistance for public administration as a “technology of stateness” during the postwar period of decolonization. Drawing on original research in the UN Archives, the article shows how these programs connected with a larger network of actors interested in promoting public administration reforms in decolonized states. Additionally, the article analyzes the assemblage of governmental rationalities and technologies advanced by UN technical assistance, finding both a tendency towards the centralization of state power and an effort to decentralize Continue reading → Continue reading →