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Time to React The Efficiency of International
Organizations in Crisis Response 1st Edition Heidi Hardt
Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Heidi Hardt
ISBN(s): 9780199337118, 019933711X
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 1.67 MB
Year: 2014
Language: english
 Time to React

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oxfordhb-9780199337118.indd ii 10/31/2013 3:02:17 PM
 Time to React
T H E E F F ICIENCY OF INTERNATION AL ORGAN IZ AT ION S
I N C R IS IS RESPONSE

Heidi Hardt

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 3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
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© Oxford University Press 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
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Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hardt, Heidi, 1983-
Time to react: the efficiency of international organizations in crisis response / Heidi Hardt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–933711–8 (hardback)
1. Crisis management. 2. Conflict management. 3. International organizations. I. Title.
HD49.H366 2014
341.5′84—dc23
2013022348

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper

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 This book is dedicated to my parents, whose words and
actions inspire me to keep an open mind and an open heart.

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oxfordhb-9780199337118.indd vi 10/31/2013 3:02:18 PM
 Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

1. Introduction 1

2. Why Speed of Response Matters 30

3. Differences in Organization Response Rates 54

4. Institutional Design in Crisis Decision-Making 72

5. The Impact of Unspoken Rules and Interpersonal Relations 90

6. Informal Norms: Barriers and Facilitators 130

7. Informal Relations: Friends and Foes 165

8. Conclusion 197

appendix 215
notes 219
references 231
index 245

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oxfordhb-9780199337118.indd viii 10/31/2013 3:02:18 PM
 Acknowledgments

In writing this book, I have benefited from the advice, feedback, and support of an array
of people that I am eager to acknowledge.
First, this book would not be possible if it were not for the hours that my PhD advisor,
Cédric Dupont, invested in reading, critiquing, and commenting on my ideas and chap-
ters. I am particularly grateful for his flexibility in communicating with me as I worked
on this project from three continents and we corresponded by phone, Skype, and email.
My dissertation committee offered invaluable feedback, first on the thesis and subse-
quently on how to revise it into a book. I wish to thank Tom Biersteker, Page Fortna, and
Thierry Tardy for all of their time, effort, and support throughout the process of creating
this book. Thank you also to Spyros Economides and Jolyon Howorth, whose insights on
European security proved invaluable.
Second, I remain indebted to acquisitions editor Angela Chnapko for her judicious
and poignant comments on the manuscript, as well as her feedback on my ideas for an
appropriate title for this book. The comments provided by the two anonymous review-
ers narrowed in on the areas that needed clarification and editing, and I appreciate
their words of wisdom. Thank you also to the editorial and production team at Oxford
University Press for their thorough examination of the manuscript.
Third, the fieldwork that I carried out in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was possible thanks
to the help of friends Yodit Beyene and Mickey Marakey, who were critical in helping
me with logistics and, on top of it, made the experience a wonderful one. I continue to
value the advice that Paul Williams offered on my research at the African Union. Equally,
I thank Dana Manescu for her kindness and hospitality during my fieldwork in Brussels,
and I thank Tom Lammel for treating me like family during my fieldwork in Vienna.
I am especially grateful to Cary Stanford and Zoë Randol for the hospitality that they

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 x Acknowledgments
so kindly provided during my fieldwork in Washington, D.C., and thank you to Arturo
Sotomayor for his insights on the Organization of American States.
Fourth, I received vital feedback on chapters of this manuscript from a number of schol-
ars, including Cliff Morgan, Rick Stoll, Royce Carroll, Frédéric Mérand, Marie-Joëlle
Zahar, T. V. Paul, Vincent Pouliot, Stephanie Hofmann, Martha Finnemore, Melissa
Labonte, Fred Chernoff, Jack Levy, and Joshua Goldstein. Thank you to Katia Papagiani
for encouraging me to pursue my interest in efficiency from a global perspective. In addi-
tion, I am especially grateful to Bruce Russett, who not only provided advice on chapters
of this manuscript but who kindly invited me to present my research at his International
Relations workshop at Yale University. He equally extended to me informal opportuni-
ties to interact with leading scholars about the research in this book. My gratitude par-
ticularly extends to Ashley Leeds for inviting me to Rice University as a visiting PhD
candidate, involving me in the weekly International Relations workshop, and challenging
me to critically assess my dependent variable. My post-doctoral fellowship at the Centre
for International Peace and Security Studies at the University of Montreal and McGill
University gave me the chance to publicly present chapters of this book as they devel-
oped. Additionally, thank you to the research assistants, particularly Louis Fornage, who
helped me complete the translation and transcription of several of the interviews that
I conducted for this book.
Last, I am indebted to the family and friends who supported me throughout this jour-
ney. Thank you Dad, Mom, Suzie, Steve, Carlie, and Honza.

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 Time to React

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oxfordhb-9780199337118.indd xii 10/31/2013 3:02:18 PM
 1 Introduction

In a country crippled by violence, the wait for international intervention can last an eternity. In
the Kosovo war, 1,000 died in less than 10 months. In the Rwanda genocide, 800,000 died in four
months. Scholars and politicians often blame these delays on clashing national interests when the
reality of blocked decision-making is much more complex. Beyond the instructions from state
capitals, the ambassadors who negotiate peace operations play an unparalleled role in the pace of
response, whether slowing progress or identifying room for compromise. Scholars have succeeded
in showing that peace operations have a positive effect on the durability of peace (Fortna 2008).
It therefore comes as a surprise that scholarship has yet to focus on rate of response in establish-
ing operations. The need to understand speed takes on particular urgency at a time when almost
half of all countries receiving assistance return to conflict within five years (Collier & Bank 2003).
As protracted inaction leads to more lives lost, what are the factors that account for the systematic
delays from the time that a peace operation is demanded to when it is supplied? Why do some
international organizations consistently take longer than others to intervene?
In this book, surprising answers to such questions arise from scholarly research and con-
temporary analyses of insights from international organization practitioners and state
decision-makers. The aim of this book is to explain core differences in the efficiency of inter-
national organizations. To this end, subsequent chapters offer personal anecdotes, survey
results, and analyses from interviews with 50 ambassadors and numerous staff at four lead-
ing international organizations, including the African Union (AU), European Union (EU),
Organization of American States (OAS), and the Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe (OSCE). These and other regional organizations have come to assume responsibil-
ity for more than half of all peace operations as the United Nations (UN) suffers from over-
extension (Gowan 2005, p.38). The book equally draws on an original response rates database.
Together, this data paints a picture in which differences in the informality of decision-making

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 2 Time to React
at an organization broadly determines the speed with which the organization responds to
calls for intervention. Those organizations with a more informal institutional culture react
more rapidly to demands for peace operations than those organizations with a more formal
institutional culture. Specifically, those organizations with more dense interpersonal rela-
tions amongst decision-makers, typically in the form of friendships, cultivate a more informal
culture of decision-making. Interpersonal relations arise through informal negotiations and
socialization, during backdoor diplomacy, and over home-cooked meals and tennis matches.
As a consequence, the overall extent of informality in an organization’s decision-making can
positively or negatively affect speed of response depending on its application. Informality can
be a remedy for speed under the specific condition that norms are conducive and relations
are positive. Chapter 7 offers evidence of both positive and negative interpersonal relations
affecting speed of response differently, and Chapter 6 shows evidence of norms facilitating
and hindering speed of response.
This book seeks to explore the determinants of speed—not the outcomes of individual
operations. Although speed alone cannot guarantee success, it is a critical factor for the
effectiveness of crisis response. The following chapter demonstrates why efficiency carries
such importance relative to other factors affecting outcomes, and it explores contempo-
rary scholarship (Doyle & Sambanis 2006; Fortna 2008) that measures influences on
outcomes. Faster reactions may increase the prospects for positive outcomes, but only
under the condition that minimal capabilities are available. Other variables affecting out-
comes include the sufficiency of capabilities, the involvement of quality peacekeepers, the
strength of the mandate, and the participation of conflict parties. Overall, this book does
not serve as a call for missions to be drawn up in record time without careful planning,
but rather as an effort to explain timeliness of responses, identify barriers to speed and, by
doing so, provide ideas to facilitate careful planning.
This argument challenges contemporary peace and conflict literature that has dismissed the
informal level of decision-making. Rather, the majority of political scientists view multilateral
decision-making as a sum of states’ interests, with the state remaining the central actor in inter-
national relations. One would expect then that the international organizations that do react
rapidly are those whose member states have the means to do so. This conclusion derives from
the realist notion that states with more capacity have more power in the international system.
A collection of states with more aggregate power should be most effective in responding to
demands for intervention. These perspectives, however, do not correspond with the puzzling
results of newly collected data on response rates. The analyses conducted for this book indi-
cate that the European Union is slower than its regional counterparts despite being superior
in affluence and capabilities. How can this be?
Institutional culture can provide answers and, as importantly, shed light on how
decision-making actually takes place within international organizations behind closed
doors. The findings in this book reveal the factors that speed up and slow down this
process. They speak to a need for future scholarship on the less-understood but powerful
impact of the informal level of decision-making in the realm of international security.

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 Introduction 3
When examined closely, the European Union stands out from other regional organiza-
tions engaged in international peace and security because of its unusually formalistic
norms of decision-making. Longer formal meetings and non-codified practices within
the EU’s Political and Security Committee result in lengthy time investments, a stiff
working environment, and few opportunities for shortcuts.
Across organizations, the impact of informal institutionalization on their speed of
response depends on a critical causal mechanism: trust. Through interpersonal relations,
decision-makers in peace operation committees establish trust among one another, and such
higher levels of trust enable strategic information-sharing in turn. For example, evidence
from scholarship on American politics reveals that friendships “weigh heavily in collective
decision-making” (Caldeira & Patterson 1987, p.954) in the case of the US legislature. As
in any relationship amongst individuals, friendships inspire more honest and open conver-
sations. Ambassadors feel more willing to share private information bilaterally or in a small
group than in official meetings. As information then becomes distributed more efficiently in
the decision-making committee, less time is needed for finding consensus. Organizations with
more informal institutional cultures, like the African Union, provide more opportunities for
such socialization and therefore, for decision-makers to establish bonds of trust. Conversely,
organizations with more formal institutional cultures, like the European Union, leave little
time for informal communications and emphasize formal meetings. After interviewing 26
of then 27 EU Political and Security Committee ambassadors, EU scholar Howorth con-
cluded: “The key element is a deeply-rooted sense of mutual trust” (Howorth 2011a). These
institutional differences stem from distinctions in formal rules and how decision-making
committees in each organization conduct business in response to these rules. Formal institu-
tions shape informal norms and practices.
In summary, even in crisis management and, more broadly, matters of high politics,
the informal level of negotiations significantly shapes decision-making. The argument
presented here contests the overemphasis on formality in literature on institutions and
aims to inspire further research into the informal layer of international cooperation.
Data collection on informal decision-making may pose greater logistical challenges than
amassing data on rules and structures, but knowledge of such practices at the informal
level is invaluable for developing the most accurate understanding of how international
organizations function.
In crisis decision-making, transparency is sacrificed for the sake of efficiency and find-
ing consensus. “A lot of things are done in the corridors, a lot of things are done prior
to the meeting because that normally facilitates the possibility of reaching consensus,”
said an ambassador to the African Union1. Equally, an Organization of American States
ambassador reported that informal negotiations are favored because of the risks of trans-
parency: “Everybody has to have a very strong position because if your country is watch-
ing (on TV) . . . there are things—you cannot say that for your people because you will
be seen over there like giving away or not defending your countries’ interests and so we
convene smaller programs.”2

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 4 Time to React
I analyze such diplomatic relations and reported private conversations by drawing on evi-
dence from surveys. These accounts explore how ambassadors reach consensus in times of cri-
ses and garner the political will to establish peace operations in light of immense time pressure.
I chose a survey-based methodology because no current databases and no other interviews
could offer such insight into the private negotiations necessary for measuring informal insti-
tutional differences. This type of methodology “provides researchers with an efficient means
to penetrate more or less alien life-worlds,” writes Pouliot (Pouliot 2007, p.370), particularly
in situations where there are scant alternatives. Only the ambassadors themselves could reveal
what goes on behind closed doors in the consensus-building process.
The book represents the first comparative study of four of the most active regional
organizations in the field of conflict management as they make the difficult decisions of
whether or not to intervene in conflict and post-conflict areas. The following chapters
contend that in the field of security studies, individual interactions deserve equal recog-
nition as state interactions in facilitating international cooperation. Scholars’ previous
understanding of how decisions were made in international organizations needs to be
reformed to account for a key missing variable: human relations. Specifically, in times of
crisis, rather than retreating behind the positions of their capitals, ambassadors seek to
rely on preestablished trust and informal social networks among one another in order to
share information and widen the space for negotiating the international organization’s
potential intervention. This affects the efficiency of the execution of peace interventions.
Efficiency, in turn, influences an operation’s prospects for success.

Efficiency and the Wait for Peace

Timeliness in intervention is one of the most significant factors in “preventing an emerg-

ing crisis from erupting into a major war” (Kent & Malan 2003, p.73). It is the key ele-
ment for efficiency. Consequently, the dependent variable to be explained for this study is
efficiency as a proxy for timeliness. The term “efficiency” conveys the idea of minimizing
input of time to maximize productivity. In the formal literature on bargaining, an effi-
cient outcome is one in which there is no delay in reaching an agreement (e.g., Cai 2003,
p.590). Since the peace and security scholarship does not offer a consensus on the defini-
tion of “efficiency,” I have adapted the term according to the above literature. Chapter 2
describes the consequences of slow responses, and these are explicit costs associated with
a lack of efficiency. In contrast, peace and security scholars use the term “effectiveness”
to refer to the successful outcome of one or more peace operations. Effectiveness may
equally be used to refer to how well a particular mandate was met. This text aims to dif-
ferentiate early on between effectiveness and efficiency.
I measure “efficiency” as the speed at which it takes for a peace operation to begin—
from when an operation is first demanded to when it is supplied on the ground. An orga-
nization’s efficiency refers to the average speed at which it establishes peace operations.

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 Introduction 5
Demand Mandate Supply

t1 t2 t3
Figure 1.1 Timeline of Crisis Response.

The timeline in Figure 1.1 offers a means of visually representing this metric for efficiency.
The first point (t1) represents the time that a demand for a peace operation is proposed
(e.g., UN Security Council Resolution or the host country’s official request). The second
point (t2) represents the date that the regional organization issues the mandate, and the
third point (t3) represents the date on which a regional organization officially begins its
peace operation. In this study, I measured efficiency as the difference between points
t3 and t1. To identify the point of peace operation demand, I focused on t1, the point at
which the affected country or international community formalized a demand for inter-
vention. This captured the will of those in need of assistance rather than the political will
of the respective international organization.
To create a dataset on efficiency, I collected data on organization response rates for
all peace operations, a total of 61, conducted by four regional organizations during the
post–Cold War period of 1991 through 2009. Data came from international databases,
including the SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database (SIPRI n.d.) and the Center
on International Cooperation Annual Review of Global Peace Operations (Center on
International Cooperation 2009). Where dates were absent from these databases, I gath-
ered them from preeminent international news publications, scholarly literature, and,
as a last resort, from the international organization websites themselves. After data col-
lection, I averaged across all response rates for each organization to find a single mea-
sure of efficiency for each regional organization. Ultimately, these measures of efficiency
(e.g., response rates) were then compared with data collected on a variety of measures of
institutionalization of the organizations. I also measured the variation in response rates
among all missions for each organization and observed significant variation within each
organization. The latter variation can be explained by a variety of factors, including dif-
ferences in relations amongst key decision-makers, the intensity of the conflict, and the
preexisting political connections that some member states may have to the host state and
conflict parties.
Why does the efficiency of interventions matter for world politics? Chronic delays in
responding to international crises threaten the legitimacy and feasibility of cultivating
sustainable peace. Protracted internal conflicts negatively influence regional and global
security through the threat of spillover—be it immigration, refugees, or organized crime.
As months pass between the demand for an intervention and the supply of personnel
on the ground, civilians continue to be subjected to violence, conflict, and/or political

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 6 Time to React
instability. The decision to establish and manage peace operations therefore affects a
region’s prospects for long-term stability and this, in turn, affects prospects for growth.
Given the severe implications that such mandates have for international security, scholars
have an obligation to investigate the realities of the decision-making process and expose
its efficiencies and inefficiencies. For example, why did it take the European Union eight
months to begin a peace operation in Chad? In addition to expanding upon the inter-
national organization literature, a secondary motivation of this study is to provide state
actors at international organizations with policy recommendations that, if implemented,
may quicken the rate of decision-making and save lives.
Previous international organization literature on maximizing efficiency has focused
on monitoring and enforcement since studies have aimed at discovering the conditions
under which states uphold commitments that they make at an international level (Barkin
2006, p.44). For the purposes of this book, I instead interpret efficiency in terms of the
speed of decision-making toward the establishment of a peace operation, and, as in previ-
ous literatures, study the information flows that affect it.
Regional organizations, like any international organization, influence (Mansfield et al.
2002) state behavior through their respective institutions (L. Martin & Simmons 1998).
What may be surprising is the assertion that they continue to do so in times of crisis
through preexisting bonds of trust and social networks. Given that diplomats are state
actors, scholars of the realist and neo-realist tradition, such as Mearsheimer, would argue
that ambassadors in intergovernmental negotiations take decisions based on their respec-
tive national interests. Mearsheimer writes, “states operating in a self-help world should
always act according to their own self-interest, because it pays to be selfish in a self-help
world” (Mearsheimer 1994, p.11). Particularly on matters of high politics where decisions
influence the lives of civilians, realists expect ambassadors to negotiate strictly according
to instructions from the ambassador’s capital, which defines state interests. Counter to
this, I theorize that, influenced by the social structure and relationships of their respec-
tive institutions, state actors instead conduct negotiations based on a medley of national
interests, norms, and networks. By testing this theory in practice, my work fits in with
other contemporary efforts to answer Keohane’s two-decade-old call for “more empirical
research guided by theory.” He outlined a need for work that would “seek to map out pat-
terns of interests, information flows and barriers, and anticipated long-term relationships
in order to understand more specifically under what conditions cooperation will or will
not take place” (Keohane 1988, p.388). My research also responds to Adler and Pouliot’s
more recent international practices agenda (Adler & Pouliot 2011) that builds on social
theory to analyze what practitioners do as a way of understanding world politics.
Aimed at opening the black box of organization decision-making, this study analyzes
the efficiency of international organizations in relation to the factors that influence
the decision-making process. Efficiency constitutes a key determinant of effective-
ness of peace operations. The longer the delay in intervening, the more that a society
becomes afflicted by violence and death and the less legitimacy the society assigns to the

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 Introduction 7
intervening organization. In the beginning of the 2010 conflict over the Côte d'Ivoire
presidential elections, for example, a Kenyan ambassador stressed that whatever strategy
African leaders decided to adopt in response “needs to happen fast” before “more lives are
lost” (Nossiter 2010). By assessing the causes of efficiency, I also explore and describe the
actual decision-making processes of the organizations in a chapter providing a typology
of organization decision-making. This sheds light on how regional organizations come to
conclusions that affect the lives of populations in conflict-afflicted regions.

An EU Model of Efficiency?

The United Nations has been the primary focus of contemporary peacekeeping schol-
arship, and as a result, there have yet to be any comparative studies of regional orga-
nizations conducting similar activities in many parts of the world. These range from
peacekeeping to police missions to security sector reform to election monitoring. Of the
minimal literature on regional actors, scholars (Coutts 2002; Salmon 2002, p.337; Buzan
& Waever 2003, p.352; Bretherton & Vogler 2006, p.223) and policy-makers (Committee
2009) have cited the EU as an institutional role model for organizations engaging in
conflict management, pointing to its advantage with respect to its superior financial and
operational capacity for undertaking peace operations (Karns & Mingst 2001, p.229;
MacFarlane 2001, p.120). Buzan and Waever (Buzan & Waever 2003, p.352) equally
praised the EU for its status as the most highly and formally institutionalized security
community in the world. Other scholars have referred to it as “a model of regional coop-
eration” (Coutts 2002) and called on other organizations to follow its highly formalized
example (Langhammer 2001; Coutts 2002). Authors such as Garofano and Leifer have
even criticized regional security arrangements that are dissimilar to the EU for relying
on informal rather than formal institutional mechanisms (Garofano 1999, p.77; Leiter
1996). The EU, as seen in Figure 1.2, below, has also conducted more peace operations
than any other regional organization (SIPRI n.d.).
Scholars further assume that organizations like the EU, with a higher-capacity bud-
get of resources and capabilities for conducting peace operations prove more effective
in carrying out operations than those organizations with a lower capacity (Graeger &
Novosseloff 2003, p.89). An organization’s increased capacity is no panacea, but it can
help mitigate the effect of a slow response rate on the outcome of a given peace operation
and enhances the chances for sustainability of the peace. The EU budgeted €243 mil-
lion (about $298 million) for its Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)
operations for the 2007–2013 period (Gya 2009). Through voluntary member-state con-
tributions via the Athena Mechanism3, the potential for funding EU missions is actu-
ally larger, particularly if one accounts for the amount that the EU “big 3” nationally
spend on defense: Great Britain €40 billion, France €33 billion, and Germany €26 billion
(Lindley-French 2009, p.38). Britain and France bring unrivaled military technology and

oxfordhb-9780199337118.indd 7 10/31/2013 3:02:19 PM

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spade, of such a size as shall well cover the opening, and to this
spade a handle of such convenient length that when, now and again,
you have to manipulate it for putting on fresh wood or otherwise, you
don’t burn yourself. It stands to reason that before all these things
are accomplished, the metal has already been put in the furnace, & it
must be stacked up in such a manner as to admit of flames playing
easily through it, for this will make the working of your furnace much
more effective.
Know, too, gentle reader, what up to now I have forgotten to tell you,
that when with due care your furnace is made, you must, before
putting the metal into it, heat it well through for a space of twenty-
four hours; for if you do not do this, you will not get the metal to melt,
nay rather will it stiffen, [268] and certain fumes will result from the
damp earth that will so impede your work that it may be eight days
before your metal begins to flow. That is what happened to me in
Paris. I had made a little furnace and had put my trust in a very
excellent old fellow, quite the best of his craft and about eighty years
of age; but he hadn’t dried the furnace properly, and, sure enough,
just as it was on the point of melting, & the fire at its fiercest, out
came these earth fumes. When the old worthy saw that for all his
heeding the metal was stiffening, he got into such a stew, the poor
old chap, that what with his mighty exertions to overcome the
difficulty, he fell flat down, and I took him for certain dead. Howbeit I
had a great beaker of the choicest wine brought him, & since there
was no such great risk in leaving the work as there was in the case
of my Perseus; since, too, I served that most admirable of kings, and
thus had not to bother so much about the peddling trivialities of
making it pay, for however big it was it never mattered with him—I
mixed a large bumper of wine for the old man, who was groaning
away like anything, and I bade him most winning-wise to drink, & I
stretched out my hand to him and said: ‘Drink, my father, for in
yonder furnace has entered in a devil, who is making all the mischief,
and, look you, we’ll just let him bide there a couple of days, till he
gets jolly well bored, and then will we, you and I together, in the
space of a three hours’ firing make this metal run like so much butter,
& without any exertion at all.’ The old fellow drank, & then I brought
him some little dainties to eat, meat pasties they were, nicely
peppered, and I made him take down four full goblets of wine. He
was a man quite out of the ordinary, this, and a most lovable old
thing, and what with my caresses and the virtue of the wine, I found
him soon moaning away as much with joy as he had moaned before
with grief. When the appointed day came the fumes had duly
evaporated, the furnace was quite ready and well heated, & in two
hours we cast 1500 lbs. of metal, with which I finished certain
portions that were left of my lunette of Fontainebleau. And that is
why I insist upon your well heating the furnace, and also upon
making two little quarry stone doors[269] at the furnace openings, and
you make in each of them two holes one and a half fingers wide
respectively, and four fingers apart from each other, and these holes
serve for the insertion of an iron fork made specially to fit into them,
with which now and again, as need occurs, you may open & shut the
doors.
Remember, too, that each time new metal is to be put into the
furnace it must be first put up against the doors[270] till it becomes red
hot, for if you put it in too soon with the other metal already in, you
run the risk of cooling the latter, & so caking it, [271] much as before
referred to. Hence the very greatest care must be taken on that
point.
In Paris have I seen craftsmen cast the most wonderful things
imaginable, and also make equally wonderful blunders. And this is
due to the fact that technical skill [272] serves you up to a certain
point, but in some accident, for instance, you need the deeper
knowledge of the principles of the art that leaves technical skill on
one side, as I have evidenced to you above.
Indeed I may add that I have seen 100,000 lbs. of metal cast at one
time with so much ease that I marvelled at it, so great was the
technical skill with which it was done; at another time I saw a little
error made that might easily have been remedied. I stood & watched
whether they knew how to put it right, and I saw them throw it up,
work and all, and so lose hundreds of scudi. Willingly would I have
shown them what the remedy was, but their presumption was so
huge that had they not known how to put my remedy into practice,
they would have been quite capable of saying that I myself was the
cause of all the ruin. So I stood mum and grew wise at their cost.
Gentle reader, let that suffice about furnaces and bronze casting,
and let us now turn to other branches of the art.

[It is interesting to note that Biringoccio, a professed metallurgist,

and a contemporary of Cellini, describing the reverberatory furnace
(reverbero) in his celebrated metallurgical treatise ‘della
Pirotechnica,’ 1540 (see above, p. 106), the first accurate treatise of
its kind, gives fewer details than Cellini; he gives, however, diagrams
which are very precious. Cellini’s decision not to give diagrams is
much to be regretted. Biringoccio has, however, the following among
other drawings of reverberatories. It serves to show what Cellini’s
furnaces would have been in sectional plan. The letters are mine. It
will be observed that no chimney is shown.]
 Biringoccio’s Furnace
from the ‘Pirotechnica’
a. Fire bars with ash
pit under.
b. Furnace bed.
c. Fire door.
d. Fire bridge.

FOOTNOTES:

[255] L’altezza della volta di detta fornace si era il mezzo tondo

della pianta della sua rotondita.
[256] See note, p. 133.
[257] Spalle.
[258] Porte.
[259] Literally, a knife.
[260] Pietre morte.
[261] Levato il fondo in capo: perhaps better rendered as the base
blown up to the top.
[262] In modern language, reverberate.
[263] Dove la muove.
[264] Pulitamente sbavato: perhaps, well rounded off.
[265] Spalle.
[266] That is what would now be called the fire bridge.
[267] Gorbia.
[268] Agghiada.
[269] Sportelletti.
[270] In su li sportelletti.
[271] Fare un migliaccio.
[272] La pratica.
CHAPTER V. HOW TO CARVE
STATUES OR INTAGLIOS, OR
OTHER WORKS, SUCH AS
DIVERS BEASTS, IN MARBLE OR
OTHER STONES.
There are many kinds of white marble, & since those of Greece are
the most desired, [273] and the loveliest, let us consider them first.
And well may I speak, for I spent some twenty years in the wondrous
city of Rome, and while there, though I gave my attention to the craft
of the goldsmith, I always had a desire to do some great works in
marble; & I worked along of some of the first sculptors that lived in
those days; and among them that I knew best was our great
Michaelangelo Buonaroti, the Florentine, the man that wrought better
in marble than any other ever known. Of the reason of this I shall
duly speak to you in its place.
Let us tell, then, in the same way as we did before in other matters,
of the qualities of marbles. I have seen five or more different sorts of
marble. The first of these has a very coarse grain,[274] and in the
grain appear certain bright points running close along side of each
other. This marble is the most difficult of all to work, because it is the
hardest; it is particularly difficult to fashion the more delicate forms in
it without the chisel damaging or cracking them; if you do manage,
though after much effort, to bring them off in this stone, they look
lovely. I have found that the grain gradually softens through the five
different sorts above-mentioned, & the softest of all I have found
verging in colour to a delicate flesh tint rather than a white. This sort
is the most cohesive, the most beautiful and the tenderest marble in
the world to work in.
FOOTNOTES:

[273] Piu orientali.

[274] Grana grossissima.
The Crucifix in the Escurial
CHAPTER VI. OF CARRARA
MARBLES.
These marbles are again of several different sorts. Some are coarse-
grained with plenty of stains,[275] and spotted with black; these are
very difficult to work in because the particular kind of stains they
have in them eats into the workman’s chisels. ’Tis bad luck to him if
he happens on one of such stained blocks; for many times they
deceive you with a lovely surface outside, while within are all these
blots. At Carrara and in the mountains round are many different
quarries, and here our great Michaelangelo came himself and spent
much time and labour in choosing the quarry from which came all the
great statues of his hand in the sacristy of St. Lorenzo, that he made
for Pope Clement. Let us discuss this marble a bit.
Just as I kept my promise in dealing with the other branches of the
art, of illustrating from my own notable works, so will I do likewise
with this most noble art of sculpture. Indeed I have always held it to
be most wondrous and beautiful, and, what is more, a good deal
easier than any of the others; and so I decided to set my hand to a
piece of work such as no man before had ever done. The work in
question was the Crucified in marble. I fashioned Him in life size, of
noble proportions, & set him upon a cross of black marble; this
likewise was of Carrara, & is a very difficult marble to work by reason
of its being so hard and brittle.
I destined this work for a tomb for myself; and I comforted myself
with the reflection that even if the work didn’t quite succeed, at least
the intention was good; but so great was the determination that I put
into the work, that what with all my previous careful studies, I
overcame all the difficulties, and satisfied everybody. So, though of
course [276] I have done lots of other works of this kind, I may content
myself with instancing this one alone in illustration of marble.
To succeed with a figure in marble the art requires a good craftsman
first to set up a little model about two palms high, and in this model
he carefully thinks out the pose, making his figure draped or nude as
the case may be. After this he makes a second model of the size his
marble is to be; & if he wants it to be particularly good he must finish
the large model much more carefully than the small one. If, however,
he be pressed for time, or if it be the will of his patron who needs the
work in a hurry, it will suffice if he complete his big model in the
manner of a good sketch, for this may be quickly done, whereas the
working out in marble takes a long time. True it is that many strong
men have gone straight for the marble with all the fury of the chisel,
preferring to work merely from a small and well designed model, but,
notwithstanding, they have been less satisfied with their final piece
than they would have been in working from a full size model. This
was noticeable in the case of our Donatello, who was a very great
man, and even with the wondrous Michaelangelo, who worked in
both ways. But it is perfectly well known that when his fine genius felt
the insufficiency of small models, he set to work with the greatest
humbleness to make models of the size of his marble; and this have
we seen with our own eyes in the Sacristy of St. Lorenzo. When you
are satisfied with your model you draw the principal views of your
statue on to the stone, and mind it be well drawn, for if not you may
miscut your block. The best method I ever saw was the one that
Michaelangelo used; when you have drawn on your principal view
you begin to chisel it round as if you wanted to work a half relief, and
thus gradually it comes to be cut out. The best chisels for doing this
are those that have got, I might say, very fine points, but the handles
of which are at least as small as the little finger. With this chisel,
subbia, you approach to within at least half a finger of what is called
the penultima pelle, the last skin but one; then you take a chisel,
scarpello, with a notch in the middle of it,[277] and carry on the work
further till it be ready for the file, lima, & this file again is called the
lima raspa, or roughing file, or occasionally scuffina. There are ever
so many sorts of this tool; there is the blade-shaped file, the semi-
circular file, and others of varying sizes, five or six of them, from
such as are two fingers thick to such as are the thickness of a very
slender penholder. Stone borers, trapani, too, may be employed
wherever you have to undercut any difficult piece of drapery, or any
pose of the figure that stands free. These borers are of two kinds,
one that you turn by means of a thong and a handle with a hole
through it; with this you can do all the more delicate and minute
interstices in hair or drapery; the other is larger and called the
trapano apetto, which you use in those parts for which the first is
inapplicable.
When the chisels, whether subbie or scarpelli, the files, and the
borers have all done their work to the due completing of your figure,
you proceed to polish the surface with a fine white, close-grained
pumice stone. I must not omit to say for the guidance of those who
are unskilled in working marble, that they may strike boldly in with
their subbie; for the more delicate subbia, provided it be not inserted
straight into the stone, does not crack the marble, but just chips off
as lightly as possible whatever may be necessary; while with the
scarpello a tacca the rough edges may then be brought to an even
plane, & you go over the work with it just as if you were making a
drawing for the surface. And this truly is the right method, and the
one which the great Michaelangelo employed. Some have tried other
ways, and thinking to have their work done quicker have sought to
get their figure out by taking a bit off first in one place and then in
another, but it took them all the longer in the end, and wasn’t near so
good; and indeed they mightily mistook, for oftentimes they had to
piece up their figures, and yet with all their patching and piecing they
could not remedy the mistakes which a want of discipline[278] and
patience at the outset had led them into.
Gladly would I go on to describe the various kinds of subbie,
scarpelli, and trapani, and likewise the mallets, all of which are of
iron tempered, or of the very finest steel; but as everybody in Italy,
nowadays, knows all about these things it really isn’t necessary. Had
I been writing in France I should have described another sort of
stone which is very soft to work in, & also white, but not the brilliant
white of marble, rather a dull white. This stone, after it is first
quarried, is so soft and easy to work, that some masters, especially
those of Paris, and I too, while there, wrought it with wooden chisels,
only we notched them in various ways in order the easier to cut the
work out according to the sketch. After this it was finished with
delicate and close chisels, pointed tools[279] and scarpelli of all sorts.
This stone, in course of time, hardened almost like marble,
especially its external surface, but I never saw any that came up to
marble when it was cleaned.
The ancients, you know, had so great a joy in things of this kind that
they paid their sculptors with fine liberality, and so they came to
investigate the most difficult things; amongst others they wrought in
a sort of green stone, often nowadays called Greek stone, of the
hardness of agate or chalcedony. Now though I have seen fair sized
figures in this stone, I have never been able to imagine how it was
worked, for, though it admits of being smoothed with lead[280] and
emery for the purpose of pavements and such things, I can only
conceive that for carving figures out of it the ancient masters must
have had some secret of tempering their steel, and so were enabled
to overcome the stone’s tremendous hardness.
There are yet other kinds of stone of which I have in Rome seen
statues, both many and great, serpentine and porphyry, but more of
porphyry, for the stone is somewhat softer. Up to our own day there
was no one who worked in this stone, till one of our Fiesolé carvers
took it up, his name was Francesco del Tadda. This man with a fine
cunning found out the way of working in porphyry. His patience was
great, & he used little hammers, martelleti, sharpened like chisels,
subbie, and other scarpelletti, which he tempered by a special
process of his own.[281] Francesco made Porphyry busts just as fine
as the ancients. Had he been equally strong in designing he might
have done over life size work too, but let it suffice that he has the
credit of being the first among moderns to practise this art. Would
that his example might inspire all who have great work at heart,
princely patrons as well as artists!
We have yet another kind of stone which is called granite. It is
somewhat softer than porphyry and there are two kinds, the one is
red and comes from the East, the other is white or black & comes
from the quarries at Elba; it is very hard to work. The column of
Santa Trinita that came to Florence from Rome is of this sort.
Moreover it is durable and beautiful, but no statues have been made
from this stone in our time.
There are still some other stones that must not be passed over,
stones that we get from near Florence, Fiesolé, Settignano and other
places. Of these, there is one of a blue colour, very delicate, & as
charming to work in as to look at, the country folk call it pietra
serena. Great columns are made of it, because it is found in large
masses in the quarry, statues are made of it too; but it is no good for
open-air use, for though it is beautiful it has no durability. Another
sort & a veritable quarry stone[282] is the tan-coloured. It is soft to
work in, statues are made of it, and it is so durable that it will resist
all effects of wind and weather. Yet another sort, and this likewise a
tan-coloured variety, is called the pietra forte, the ‘strong stone,’ &
strong it is indeed, for it is desperately hard to work in, statues,
weapons, masks, & many other things are made of it. You cannot,
however, quarry it in very great pieces as you can the Fiesolé or
Settignano varieties. I have mentioned these three sorts of stone
because statues may be made in them. There are many others in
and around Florence, beautifully marked stones, some hard, some
soft, but as they are not used for figure work, I shall have no more to
say about them.

FOOTNOTES:

[275] Smerigli.
[276] See ‘Vita,’ p. 475, etc., and note. This crucifix is in the
Church of S. Lorenzo, in the Escurial. I give an illustration of it
opposite.
[277] Con una tacca in mezzo.
[278] Ubbidienzia.
[279] Gorbie.
[280] Il piombe.
[281] Altri scarpelletti pur fatti con sue tempere.
[282] Pietra morta.
CHAPTER VII. A DISQUISITION ON
COLOSSAL STATUES, WHETHER
MODERATELY OR VERY GREAT.
Most gracious of readers, forasmuch as I have always promised to
illustrate my words with instances from my own created works, I
would like now to tell you of another branch of the subject, and one
that is both the most difficult and the most admirable of any so far
described; allow me then to make the following digression, so that
those who read may have means of pondering it well. I mean
colossi; not necessarily the very great ones, because whenever a
statue is three times bigger than life size it may be termed a
colossus. I have seen plenty of such, both ancient and modern. But
of the very great ones I have only seen one, and that was in Rome; it
was in many pieces, & I saw the head, feet, part of the legs and
other fragments of its great limbs. Upon measuring the head, which
was standing upright and without the neck, I found as I stood
alongside it that it came up to my nipples, so that it would measure
more than two & a half Florentine cubits, the complete statue
therefore must have been about twenty cubits high.
When I served the great King Francis,—it must have been about the
year 1540,—knowing his consummate taste and his delight in
everything rare and masterful, knowing, too, that such an object had
never yet been fashioned by any living artist, I made among the
other works before-mentioned a model for a fountain at
Fontainebleau, or as one might translate it ‘Fontana Belio,’ ‘the
fountain of fine waters.’ This model was square in form, and in the
middle of the square was a square base rising four cubits above the
water. It was richly ornamented with many pleasing designs, and
devices appropriate to the King and to the fountain. Upon the base
was a figure representing the God Mars, and at the four corners
were figures having reference all of them to his Majesty. When I
showed it to the King it was to a smaller scale, but in its full size the
central figure would have been forty cubits high, the side figures
being proportionately smaller. When the King saw the model he
examined it a long while with the greatest satisfaction, and then
asked me of the central figure. It was a God of War, I said, and
hence most appropriate to his Majesty. Then he asked me of the
other figures. They represented, I said, the four virtues in which he
especially delighted. Just as the central figure betokened the glory of
arms, so did this one at the corner represent the glory of letters; this
one again sculpture, painting, and architecture; the next music and
every sort of musical harmony; while the last personified liberality,
the cause, mainspring & foster-mother of all the other virtues, and
one that was most abundant in his Majesty. His Majesty promptly
gave me the commission to proceed with the work, which I did,
inspired by his delightful encouragement and with abundance of all
sorts of things placed at my service. After the careful completion of
my little model, as it did not seem to me possible to retain all the
proper proportions if I worked direct from it into the full size, I
determined to make another model three times the size of the small
one,—about the stature of a well-formed man therefore. This model I
made in gesso, so that it should the better resist the much handling
that is inevitable from frequent measuring. After setting up the iron
skeleton I covered it with gesso, and finished it beautifully, putting
more care and detail into it than the little one.
I would take this opportunity, gentle reader, of bidding you bear in
mind that all the really great masters have followed life, but the point
is that you must have a fine judgment to know how the best of life is
to be put into your work, you must always be on the look out for
beautiful human beings, and from among them choose the most
beautiful, & not only so, you must from among even these choose
the most beautiful parts, and so shall your whole composition
become an abstraction of what is beautiful. So alone may work be
created, that shall be evident at once as the labour of men both
exquisite in judgment and humble in study. Such men are rare! Now
such zeal had I, and so many conveniences were placed at my
service by that most liberal King Francis, that I brought this three-
sized model of mine to completion; not only was I satisfied with it
myself, but it pleased everybody who knew what good work was.
Truly great Art is infinite, & the more study you put into your work the
easier it is for you to see its blemishes than others, but for all that it
is sometimes good to cry ‘hold, enough!’ even to one’s own work, so
meseemed here I ought to content me, and therefore I arranged for
setting my work up in due order from the scale model to the final
forty cubits. This was how I went about it.
CHAPTER VIII. THE MYSTERY OF
MAKING GREAT COLOSSI.
To begin with, then, I divided the model, which was to be translated
from three cubits to forty, into forty small parts, each of these parts
again I divided into twenty-four parts. But as I knew that this method
alone would not suffice to arrive at the requisite size, I devised
another method, a method entirely my own, never invented by
anyone before, & the outcome of my own great researches. As I am
always generously inclined, I will impart it to such as have good work
at heart. It is this: I took four square pieces of wood measuring
respectively three fingers each way, they were very straight, and
planed nice and smooth, and they were exactly the height of my
figure. These I fixed into the ground, plumbing them absolutely
straight, and at such distance from the figure as to admit of a man
entering in between; they were then match-boarded[283] all round, the
boards being likewise perfectly straight, & a small opening at the
back to enter by. Up against this match-boarding I began making my
measurements, & then I drew out on the floor of a long room a
profile[284] of the whole statue, forty cubits in size. Finding this plan
work out with delightful accuracy, I proceeded next to make a
skeleton three cubits high, similar to that of the model. This skeleton
was all joined together with pieces of wood, fastened respectively to
a very straight rod, the latter served for the left leg, upon which my
figure rested. I took the measurements of the body of the figure off
the case, making allowance in doing so for the thickness of the flesh
and bone work it had subsequently to be clothed with. Thereupon I
erected a great mast forty cubits high in the centre of the court of my
castle, and round it I set up four other masts just as I had done it with
the model, and these also I cased round with match-boarding just as
I had done the small model. Then I joined together the life size
skeleton, taking the measurements exactly from the small skeleton,
for every little piece a large piece, and so marking off every
measurement of every part of my figure proportionately from one
case on to the other.
Had I scaled the work off in the usual way I should have had no end
of difficulties, but this method of mine with the cases avoided all that,
and I got as fine a proportion in my life size as in my small figures.
Now as my figure was posed upon the left foot, and had the right foot
resting on a helmet, I so arranged the skeleton as to make it possible
to get inside the helmet & climb easily through the foot right up into
the head. The skeleton completed, I clothed it in flesh, that is to say
in gesso, and laid it on rapidly in the same manner. When I had got
the work completed to the last skin but one, I had the front of the
casing opened, and stepped back to view it some forty cubits, which
was as much as there was room for in my court-yard. Everybody
was delighted with the result, not only connoisseurs, many of whom
came to see, but, what was much more important, I myself, who had
given so much labour towards its fulfilment. What pleased me most,
however, was the fact that there was not the slightest discrepancy
between the small and the large model. By this method of mine I set
working a number of labourers & people unskilled in the profession,
it wasn’t in the least necessary for them to know what they were
doing. Indeed so masterly is my invention that nothing but patience
and diligence are needed, for the rest you may be a perfect
ignoramus in the art, and not even the hand of a Michaelangelo help
you. In a colossus of this kind the masses of muscle, &c., are so
huge that it is impossible to take them in from the ordinary point of
vision, which one may put at twice the length of a man; & if you
approach the figure at arm’s length in order to work it you see
nothing; if, on the other hand, you go a long way off you do see a
little more, but still not enough to remedy the great errors that must
arise. You see, therefore, that without this method of mine it is
impossible to carry out a large colossus with fine proportions. Truly,
many a statue of ten cubits high has been spoilt by some blunder or
other; and I really think that not even statues of six cubits high can
be properly made without this method of mine. Of course it is quite
conceivable that just as I have discovered this method so some
greater genius than I may discover a better one still; but then it’s
always easy to improve a patent!
When the King came to Paris, he lay, as was his wont, at his castle,
the Logro (the Louvre); it was opposite my castle of Little Nello, for
there was only the Seine in between. I crossed the river and waited
upon his Majesty. He was quite charming to me, and asked me if I
had anything lovely to show him. I replied that as for the loveliness I
wasn’t so sure, but I had done some work with great study and with
all the devotion that so noble an art demanded, and that if it was
good it was due to him who allowed me to want for nothing, such
freehandedness being the only way of getting the best work done. To
this the King yeasaid me, and the day following he came to my
house. After I had shown him a variety of different work I made him
enter the court-yard, placing him at the point whence my great statue
told to the best advantage. He obeyed me with the greatest
condescension and the most perfect breeding; [285] and, indeed,
never have I met any prince who had such a wonderful way with him.
Now while I was conversing with his Majesty I ordered Ascanio, my
pupil, to let the curtain down. Instantly the King raised his hands &
spoke in my praise the most complimentary words that human
tongue ever uttered. After which, turning to Monsignor d’Aniballe,[286]
‘I command you,’ he said, most emphatically, ‘to give the first good
fat Abbey that falls vacant to our Benvenuto, for I do not want my
kingdom to be deprived of his like.’ At this I bowed deeply and
thanked the King, while he, well satisfied, went back to his castle.
Now knew I what pleasure my labour caused this great King,
encouragement brought encouragement, and I set to yet greater
labours still. I took 30 lbs. of silver of my own money & gave it to two
of my workmen, with the designs and the models to make two large
vases of. As it was a time of great wars I had asked no money of the
King, and also left untouched six months of my salary. Setting to
work lustily at my own vases, I finished them in a month’s time, and
set out with them to find the King who was in a city by the sea called
Argentana. When I gave him the vases he was most engaging, &
said: ‘Be of good heart, my Benvenuto, for I am one that both can &
will reward your labours better than anyone else in the world.’ To
which I replied that from earliest recollections my mightiest labours
had been the discovery & application of my method relating to the
founding of great colossi; that now, thanks to God, my model had
come up to my expectations, that the casting had now to be
considered, and that this would have to be done in over one hundred
separate pieces, fitted together with swallow-tail joints. Nor would it
be very difficult for us to do, as I had already devised a skeleton of
iron upon which to attach the various portions of the colossus as I
cast them, commencing at the feet and piece by piece fitting them
together up to the head. The only difficulty would be the putting
together of the iron skeleton; but this, too, I would take credit for
surmounting, observing the same process as I had carried out
previously in the wooden one. It would be necessary, then, for me to
fix the first rods of the skeleton straightway into their final position,
that is to say, at his Majesty’s residence at Fontainebleau, where I
should have to be provided with a room sufficiently large for the
purpose. To this the King replied that, if there were no other rooms
suitable to my purpose, he would give up to me his own private
apartment, so great was his desire to see a work of this kind
finished. I might take courage, then, and be of a light heart, and, he
added, I might return to Paris to this end. The two big vases were
standing on the table before his Majesty, & as he was fingering and
praising them, I preferred the request to him that, as the time was
opportune, it being the time of war, he would grant me permission to
return for four months to Italy, to revisit my fatherland, my relatives &
friends. At these words of mine his Majesty grew very sour of aspect,
and turned to me, saying, ‘I wish you to gild these two vases from
top to bottom with dull gilding!’ This remark he repeated twice, and
then rose quickly from the table and said nothing further. By ‘dull’ I
fancied he meant two things: firstly, that I was a ‘dull fool’ to ask such
a liberty; & secondly, that the gold on the vases was to be left
unburnished. When his Majesty had withdrawn I begged the Cardinal
of Ferrara, to whom was entrusted the duty of looking after me, to
procure the leave for me. The Cardinal bade me go back to Paris,
and that he would let me know what I should do. In the space of a
fortnight he sent word by one of his servants that I could go, but that
I should return as soon as possible. I praised God and set out.
Of the property in my castle I took absolutely nothing with me,
neither the stuffs nor the house furniture, the silver nor the gold, nor
the embossed vases, nor any of the other works made
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