Most international organisations are nepotistic, dead-end cesspools of petty egos, political posturing and influence games.

I clicked through because the headline seemed mysteriously intriguing. From The Corruption of IARC (Summary): IARC’s Dirty 30 by Riskmonger.

As it happens, it turns out to be about corruption at an agency of the UN doing research in the field of cancer. Not sufficiently in my zone of interest to read. But among the intro paragraphs I covered before clicking on, there was this.

A UN agency, part of the WHO, committed to saving lives and improving health. … Sounds impressive, virtuous, honourable! That’s why American tort lawyers love to refer to these organisations when they need to convince a jury they have credible, trustworthy sources.

Most people think of UN agencies or institutions as highly responsible global organisations who employ the world’s bests diplomats, thinkers and scientists. This is why international civil servants are paid so much; they must be able to attract the best of the best, right?

Well … No!

As anyone who has worked in such ivory towers of international diplomacy will attest, however, most international organisations are nepotistic, dead-end cesspools of petty egos, political posturing and influence games. Most of these “great minds” find themselves paid too much to leave but are too poorly personally rewarded to work with integrity. They become arrogant and feel accountable to no one. Occupying islands of righteousness isolated from the real world, most of these international civil servants amuse themselves making intrigues with friends while wasting far too much time attacking their enemies. Those with strong values and competence leave; the remaining careerists adopt a cynical gamesmanship.

Such is the case within the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

That penultimate paragraph though!

As anyone who has worked in such ivory towers of international diplomacy will attest, however, most international organisations are nepotistic, dead-end cesspools of petty egos, political posturing and influence games. Most of these “great minds” find themselves paid too much to leave but are too poorly personally rewarded to work with integrity. They become arrogant and feel accountable to no one. Occupying islands of righteousness isolated from the real world, most of these international civil servants amuse themselves making intrigues with friends while wasting far too much time attacking their enemies. Those with strong values and competence leave; the remaining careerists adopt a cynical gamesmanship.

That pretty much summarizes my father's view of the American Foreign Service. Academia, government agencies, regulatory bodies, mainstream media, marketing departments, corporate HR departments: really, any group who are isolated from the market and the public and who are beyond accountability and effectively above the law - they all eventually meet this description.