This study contributes to the field of International Public Administration (IPA) and the emerging area of Informal International Relations (IIR) by examining the politics of staffing and recruitment of the African Union Commission (AUC). Although the AUC has become a major political player in international affairs, there is a dearth of knowledge about the civil servants who work for the AUC and who run this paramount pan-African executive body. To address the void, this paper draws on a survey of 137 AUC staff, archival studies and interviews to explore recruitment of AUC staff. Combining organisational theory and informality as analytical lenses, the study demonstrates that, first, many informal international practices (IIPs) are embedded in AUC recruitment processes. Second, the AUC is composed largely of short-term, contracted staff. Finally, it shows that the AUC is dependent on lower-ranked personnel or that it is bottom-heavy. Many of these lower-ranked officials are intimately involved in the making of AUC policies and decisions, putting into question the assumption in existing scholarship that decision-makers of IOs are primarily reliant on top-ranked A-level officials (senior management).

中文翻译：

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掌管非洲事务的人：非洲联盟委员会的人员配备和招聘

本研究通过审查非洲联盟委员会 (AUC) 的人员配备和招聘政治，为国际公共行政 (IPA) 领域和非正式国际关系 (IIR) 的新兴领域做出了贡献。尽管 AUC 已成为国际事务中的主要政治参与者，但对于为 AUC 工作并管理这个至高无上的泛非执行机构的公务员却知之甚少。为了解决这一空白，本文利用对 137 名 AUC 工作人员的调查、档案研究和访谈来探索 AUC 工作人员的招聘。该研究将组织理论和非正式性作为分析镜头相结合，表明，首先，许多非正式的国际实践 (IIP) 嵌入在 AUC 的招聘过程中。其次，AUC 主要由短期合同工组成。最后，它表明 AUC 依赖于较低级别的人员或者它是最底层的。这些低级别官员中的许多人都密切参与了 AUC 政策和决策的制定，这对现有学术中关于 IO 决策者主要依赖于高级 A 级官员（高级管理人员）的假设提出了质疑。