Resilience and Reform of the UN Joint Inspection Unit: Path Dependent Changes and Regime Complexity

Over the past forty years, the UN Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) has survived innumerable crises with relatively little meaningful change to its underlying formal governance structures. This paper argues that, at the organizational level, the JIU has proven resilient. Resilience is defined here as the stability in structures of governance within an organization. To explore the sources of resilience and its implications, this paper engages with historical institutionalism, a power-based explanation, and the regime complexity literature to answer two questions. First, where and why do we see such resilience. We examine how earlier choices regarding institutional design, and power dynamics produce path dependent change and limits extensive reform. Second, what are the implications for the Unit with regard to the proliferation of UN oversight institutions. We investigate whether (and if so how) institutional proliferation of UN oversight institutions made the JIU more resilient. We argue that organizational resilience has worked, so far, due to a combination of three factors: path dependent change, a convergence of interests by key states in the regime complex, and competition from other UN oversight institutions.