The World's Greatest Trade Association?

TCS:

The United Nations is the pre-eminent trade association for people involved in the business of government power. Actually, it is more focused than that. The United Nations is the trade association for the world's executive branches -- the place where executive branches come together to promote their individual interests to one another, and to promote the expansion of executive authority in general. This point is often missed by UN critics who dismiss the organization as nothing more than the world's greatest debating society. These critics confuse being voluntary with being powerless. Organizations like The American Bar Association, the American Medical Association, the International Tobacco Growers' Association are all voluntary -- but certainly not powerless. Once it is understood that the United Nations is a trade association for the promotion of executive authority, its behavior becomes almost rational. The trade association extends professional courtesy to its members -- its cardinal rule is not to step on the toes of another executive. Saddam Hussein violated this rule by invading Kuwait and displacing another executive. Hussein paid for this mistake; the UN stepped in to enforce discipline amongst its members.

I'll have to think about this premise for a bit. Certainly it is an interesting analogy, and right off the top of my head I can't think of anything that shows it to be way off base. The only aspect, niggling at the back of my brain, is that this analogy doesn't account for the NGOs, which have a great deal of presence and power at the U.N. Regardless, it is something that is interesting to think about. (via Instapundit)