Resourcing the OSCE: Extrabudgetary funding as a dilemma for international secretariats?

International organizations (IOs) are increasingly dependent on voluntary funding, not least because states often cannot agree on regular budgets. But what are the implications of voluntary funding for IO bureaucracies? While research on international public administration and on IO resourcing has paid increasing attention to creative funding schemes, views of international secretariats on the pros and cons of voluntary funding require more attention. We examine the Secretariat of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as a heuristic case for shedding light on the effects of voluntary funding on international bureaucracies. The OSCE, the world's largest regional security organization, has been facing a budget crisis for many years, which Russia's war against Ukraine has exacerbated. Extrabudgetary (ExB) contributions, not subject to the consensus rule, are crucial for the OSCE to implement its broad mandate. This paper presents initial evidence showing that the OSCE Secretariat is actively seeking more ExB funding to cope with budget shortcomings. However, ExB also comes with challenges such as reduced IO autonomy due to earmarking, higher administrative workload, and competition within the OSCE and between the OSCE and other IOs. Drawing on research on IO resourcing, OSCE documents, and interviews with OSCE officials and members of national delegations, we develop a typology of pros and cons of voluntary funding for international secretariats. We discuss how the OSCE Secretariat manages the resulting dilemma(s) in light of existing insights on resourcing of other IOs and their international public administrations.