Book talk - 'Advocacy and Change in International Organisations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping'
The Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Working Group are pleased to invite Kseniya Oksamytna to present her book, which is the winner of 2024 Chadwick F. Alger Best Book Award, International Studies Association, and has been nominted by our working group for the BISA Susan Strange Best Book Prize. Ksenya will discuss her book, and there will be room for question and answer over the topics raised.
How do international organisations change? Many organisations expand into new areas or abandon programmes of work. The book 'Advocacy and Change in International Organizations' argues that they do so not only at the collective direction of member states. Advocacy is a crucial but overlooked source of change in international organisations. Different actors can advocate for change: national diplomats, international bureaucrats, external experts, or civil society activists. They can use one of three advocacy strategies: social pressure, persuasion, and “authority talk”. This book demonstrates how the advocacy-focused framework explains the origins of three workstreams of contemporary UN peacekeeping operations: communication, protection, and reconstruction. The issue of strategic communications was promoted by UN officials through the strategy of persuasion. Protection of civilians emerged due to a partially successful social influence campaign by a coalition of elected Security Council members and a subsequent (and successful) persuasion efforts by Canada. Quick impact projects entered peacekeepers' practice as the result of “authority talk” by an expert panel.
Dr Kseniya Oksamytna is a Senior Lecturer at City, University of London. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow in the Conflict, Security, and Development Research Group at King’s College London. Her research interests are international organisations, international security, and peace operations.
Registration will close two hours before the event begins.