Now that the International Accounting Standards Board has emerged from the restructuring of the International Accounting Standards Committee's board, it seeks to establish high-quality International Financial Reporting Standards and to engineer convergence at that level with 8 leading national standard setters via a formal process of liaison. One obstacle lying in the IASB's path is the set of "political" pressures that may be triggered by any board initiative to prescribe specific accounting treatments, eliminate alternative treatments, impose additional disclosure requirements, or tighten the allowed interpretations. This article relates numerous attempts by industry and other affected parties, both in the US and other countries, to move aggressively to prevent an accounting standard setter from imposing an objectionable requirement.