Financing International Organization: The United Nations Budget Process

This is one those rare prefaces in which the author need not attempt to justify, or apologize for, the addition of another book to an already over- burdened field. There is certainly no plethora of serious studies on inter- national organization in general, and almost none dealing with the administrative aspects of such organization. More precisely, the author is not aware of a single comprehensive treatment of the finances of any international political organization, past or present. Over the years, many former Secretariat members of the League, the United Nations, and their affiliated agencies have come forth with either memoirs or general commentaries on their organizations. And frequently these works have included revealing, but brief, passages dealing with budg- etary questions, yet none has dealt with these questions in any detailed or thorough fashion. It is unfortunate that this is so. Not that the fate of the world rides on the United Nations budget, or that matters of peace and war will be determined by the dollars and cents of the Secretary-Generals estimates. Yet questions of real importance to many of the worlds citizens are decided in the budgetary struggle. Until the policy decisions of the various organs are translated into budget items, there is no visiting mission to encourageTogolands movement toward eventual self-govern- ment, no cease-fire observer in the Middle East, no rehabilitation com- mission in South Korea, and no public administration advisor in San- tiago.