As with most trends, the proliferation of international institutions over the last fifty years inevitably begs the question: "When will they start to decline?" Just as the U.S. saw a vast growth and then a demise of federal bodies in the 1930s and 40s, institutions established to regulate international relationships could go the same way as the once lauded National Recovery Administration, Public Works Administration and Work Progress Administration.

Anti-globalization demonstrators represent a visible opposition to bodies like the WTO and IMF, but the mounting distrust of transnationalism – as evidenced in America by opposition to new powers for the International Court of Justice and in the UK by resistance to the European Central Bank and the Euro currency - confirm that such institutions no longer get a free political ride.

Yet it is the International Whaling Commission that could prove to be the most powerful catalyst of all for decline. By ignoring the articles of the Convention by which it was established, the IWC has become dysfunctional. By imposing arbitrary and unscientific preferences, in the form of a moratorium and regional sanctuaries, its majority has undermined the fabric of international governance. And because this misrule has been led by domineering democratic world powers such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, the conditions have been created for the waning of authority for all other international institutions.

The irony is that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have fought to create, and then succeeded in influencing, this array of international institutions. They have focused significant resources on lobbying bodies ranging from the IPCC to CITES, acquiring in many cases the power of a state. In the case of the IWC, however, this power has been so over-employed and abused that it now risks reducing their ability to influence other issues in the future.

NGOs still bitterly oppose an RMS, counting on substantial donations from foundations to maintain their campaigns. This paints them into a corner, leaving them no choice but to lobby governments for total protection of whales and purchase newspaper advertising, in spite of the reality that the whales being hunted are abundant.

The enduring complicity of single-issue delegations from western powers has ensured that the wider perspective has been largely ignored. It has enabled environmental fundamentalism to dominate IWC policies.

Current intransigence not only damages the IWC, it also threatens common aspirations for a more fair and just world. The IWC debacle could indeed prove to be the high water mark for NGO power over an international institution, but it could also precipitate the decline of their influence in the future. Some earnest and honest thinking needs to take place and cool heads now need to prevail at the IWC.

IWMC hopes that IWC54 will redirect the Commission on the courses of action contemplated by its founding fathers.