UNHCR’s Origins and Early History: Agency, Influence, and Power in Global Refugee Policy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40450Keywords:
UNHCR, refugee policy, authority, power, leadership, High Commissioner, decolonization, Cold WarAbstract
This article assesses the role and functions of UNHCR during its formative years and explores its agency, influence, and use of power in global refugee policy. During most of the Cold War, UNHCR’s first four high commissioners employed delegated authority and expertise on refugee law and protection, thereby convincing states of the Office’s usefulness to international stability and ensuring its survival, growth, and power. It concludes by arguing that the Office should use the lessons of this early period of its history to explore ways to exercise similar attributes today.
Metrics
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2017 Gil Loescher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.
