Dissertation Proposal
Problem definition and context of research Since the 1990s, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) formed in greater numbers to tackle the complexity of an interconnected global system. They transformed the way that politics are structured and organised. Eurojust, Europol, Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court were all formed within the last decade of the twentieth century. All of them are sited in The Hague along with 160 nongovernmental organisations. The city has been actively wooing international organisations as an economic strategy to create jobs and a knowledge economy focused on international law and security.2 In 2009, the city decided to create the international zone, an urban project intended to attract more international organisations.3 The main strategy for this zone is the creation of a secure environment for these organisations and seamless international connectivity through Schiphol. The creation of a distinct international zone away from the civic centre of the city and the administrative centre of the country is however a lost opportunity for the government, because it stages the project as an urban and economic rather than a political one. The relationship between IGOs and national institutions is tense and complex, because the former challenges national sovereignty. But at the same time they are allies. The international zone should have been a project that negotiates this tense and complex relationship and creates a spatial precedent for a multi-scalar public sphere in the city. IGOs mirror civic institutions in their function; the International Criminal Court (ICC) functions as a law court, Europol as a police station, but they are not simple scaled up versions of civic institutions. IGOs are structured and organised differently from civic institutions. To highlight the similarities and differences between them they will be called post-civic institutions in this research. The criteria that frames the differences between civic and post-civic institutions are security, extraterritoriality, diagrams of negotiation and representation and these are the main concerns that the research will explore. In this research the ICC will be used as an example of a post-civic institution.
2. Guide to the International Organisations in The Hague 2010/2011 issued by the Hague municipality. 3. Maaret Schmittâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website (former chief architect of The Hague) <http://www.schmittsfavorites.nl/2009/denhaag_popup.asp?boek_ id=4&id=63> [accessed 6.03.2014]
4