United Front: Blame Management and Scandal Response Tactics of the United Nations

摘要

In this paper we conduct a systematic study of the United Nations (UN) responses to allegations of transgression. We examine the patterns in the UN reaction to scandals, the types of accounts, the institutional providers of the responses, and the implications of scandals for the UN and its' official(s). We conduct a content analysis of the UN scandal and account coverage in international (print) media in the last 25 years, and find a scandal-responsive UN, particularly in the case of institutional scandals. Concessions issued by the office of the Secretary General is dominant UN account to allegations of misconduct. Individual staff members implicated in the scandals offer a greater variety of accounts and often suffer resignations and severe punishments.