Arms embargo monitoring at the UN Security Council: expert cliques, recognition cycles, and the emergence of new practice

Arms embargo monitoring at the UN Security Council: expert cliques, recognition cycles, and the emergence of new practice

How does new expert practice in international organisations (IOs) emerge and gain recognition? This study analyses the evolution of arms embargo monitoring by the United Nations (UN) Panels of Experts (PoEs) between 1996 and 2016. The study shows how dense sub-networks of experts spanning organisational boundaries, defined as trans-sectoral cliques, drove the emergence and mutation of practice on PoEs. Cliques shaped activity patterns within PoE…