Saner, R; Yiu, L, (2004) Organisational Culture of UN Agencies: The Need for Diplomats to Manage Porous Boundary Phenomena

Diplomats responsible for interfacing with UN Agencies need to recognise and manage overt and covert aspects of the Organisational Culture of UN Agencies, which are distinct from mainstream public and private sector organisations. Particular features of UN organisational cultures for instance often consist of complex informal organisational structures, multiple political interference's (external and internal), inter-cultural value differences of staff and different management practices. Porous Boundary Phenomena from the authors' point of view is one of the major factors which impose constraints on the performance of UN and in itself mirrors the client system that the UN is serving.

Effective Business Diplomacy

Raymond Saner, “Effective Business Diplomacy”

Governments use economic and commercial diplomacy to represent their interests abroad and at home1. However, Indian companies are less aware that they need to develop their own diplomatic competencies in order to be successful abroad and to be less dependent on information and guidelines provided by their Embassies abroad.

Labour Rights as Human Rights: Evaluating the policy coherence of USA, EU and Australia through trade agreements and their participation in the Universal Periodic Review

Raymond Saner, Angad Keith & Lichia Yiu

The purpose of this study is to find policy coherence, or lack thereof, in the labour provisions contained in the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) of the United States of America, the European Union and Australia when compared to their interactions in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Sessions with their trade partners and to the official trio of UPR documents made available during these sessions. Over the past decade these countries have entered into various free trade agreements with developing and developed countries alike. However, it is their trade agreements with developing countries that are of particular interest.

External Stakeholder Impacts on Official and Non-Official Third-Party Interventions to Resolve Malignant Conflicts: The case of a failed intervention in Cyprus; CSEND, Geneva and shorter version in International Negotiations”

Raymond Saner, Lichia Yiu; (2002) External Stakeholder Impacts on Official and Non-Official Third-Party Interventions to Resolve Malignant Conflicts: The case of a failed intervention in Cyprus; CSEND, Geneva and shorter version in International Negotiations”, 6,3, 2001 ed. William Zartman

This paper focuses on the potentially positive and negative impact which multiple and competing external stakeholders (influential foreign powers, supranational institutions, intergovernmental organizations and NGOs from various countries) can have on official and non-official third-party peace building initiatives. The example selected in this article describes a Swiss NGO initiated inter-communal project on Cyprus. It analyzes the causes, primarily by external and to a lesser degree by internal stakeholders, which have negatively impacted this confidence-building project. The article is descriptive and narrative due to the fact that access to confidential information of key stakeholder governments and institutions remains limited. The aim of the authors is to use field experience to further develop theory and practice of official and non-official third-party intervention in a context of a persistent and malignant conflict characterized by multi-external stakeholder interferences, as is the case with the long-lasting conflict on Cyprus.

Science Diplomacy to support global implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Saner, R; “ Science Diplomacy to support global implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. Policy Brief written for the first edition of the Global Sustainable Development Report of the UN-DESA, page 39.