Doctoral candidates still have around 1% chance of success in my country. Academia is more often a way of expressing niche knowledge, and it represents a different can of worms. Things like grade inflation, ivy league nepotism aren’t even addressing the problematic areas of higher education. But anyway, the areas of specialization are too narrow to be broadly celebrated as leadership qualities. Given the unreformed state of islam, It is more than likely that religious bodies in Iran selected their negotiation team for their work ethic, since most of their government officers are easily distributed along similar religious and political lines. The PhDs in Iran’s team do not contribute to their own specialization because doctorate work requires ultimate devotion, unless they’re willing to fail and join the 99% of candidates.