| Abstract: | This analysis takes for its starting point an internal UnitedNations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) memorandum, whichcriticized West German asylum practices in rather strong terms,leaked, and generated considerable controversy in the FederalRepublic of Germany (FRG), internationally and within UNHCR.The article inscribes these events within the broader evolutionof the relationship between UNHCR and the FRG to present themas one of several initiatives envisaged within the refugee agencyin order to bend West Germany's increasingly restrictive stanceon asylum issues. In this sense, UNHCR's attempts to use confrontationas a diplomatic tool shed light on an international organization'savenues for influence and their limits. Tracing the emergenceof the UNHCR's chosen course of action and attempting to assessits repercussions, the study emphasizes the interaction betweenvarious members of UNHCR staff in the organization's branchoffice in Bonn and its headquarters in Geneva, as well as betweenpolitical factions within the FRG. Calling to mind that neitherUNHCR nor the FRG are unitary actors, this opens the way foran analysis of the role individual agency may play within largercollective actors. |
