The benefits of institutionalisation are bought at a price, however. High levels
of institutionalisation may not lead to greater efficiency or effectiveness,
especially when an elaborate decision-making process encourages stalemate or
inaction. Moreover, an elaborate institutional structure may mask the degree to
which the fundamental bases for the alliance are eroding. Like Oscar Wilde's
picture of Dorian Gray, an ageing alliance may appear robust and healthy so long
as its formal institutions continue to operate, even if the basic rationale for the
arrangement is crumbling. If the governing bureaucracy continues to function,
if ministerial meetings continue to issue innocuous communiqués on schedule,
and if the alliance is not called upon to do anything, then its members may not
be fully aware of the extent to which their interests have diverged. The danger,
of course, is that the alliance may be dead long before anyone notices, and the
discovery of the corpse may come at a very inconvenient moment