Trilateral Commission
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, nonpartisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America.
History
Founding
The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Japan, North American nations, and Western European nations to foster substantive political and economic dialogue across the world. The idea of the Commission was developed in the early 1970s, a time of considerable discord among the United States and its allies in Western Europe, Japan, and Canada.To quote its founding declaration:
- "Growing interdependence is a fact of life of the contemporary world. It transcends and influences national systems... While it is important to develop greater cooperation among all the countries of the world, Japan, Western Europe, and North America, in view of their great weight in the world economy and their massive relations with one another, bear a special responsibility for developing effective cooperation, both in their own interests and in those of the rest of the world."
- "To be effective in meeting common problems, Japan, Western Europe, and North America will have to consult and cooperate more closely, on the basis of equality, to develop and carry out coordinated policies on matters affecting their common interests... refrain from unilateral actions incompatible with their interdependence and from actions detrimental to other regions... take advantage of existing international and regional organizations and further enhance their role."
- "The Commission hopes to play a creative role as a channel of free exchange of opinions with other countries and regions. Further progress of the developing countries and greater improvement of East-West relations will be a major concern."
- Edwin Reischauer, professor at Harvard University and United States Ambassador to Japan, 19611966
- George S. Franklin, executive director of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York
- Gerard C. Smith, SALT I negotiator and its first North American chairman
- Henry D. Owen, foreign policy studies director at the Brookings Institution
- Max Kohnstamm, European Policy Centre
- Robert R. Bowie, the Foreign Policy Association and director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs
- Marshall Hornblower, former partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering
- Tadashi Yamamoto, Japan Center for International Exchange
- William Scranton, former governor of Pennsylvania
The organization's records are stored at the Rockefeller Archive Center in North Tarrytown, NY.
Meetings
The Trilateral Commission initiated its biannual meetings in October 1973 in Tokyo, Japan. In May 1976 the first plenary meeting of all of the Commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto, Japan. Since the ninth meeting in 1978, plenary meetings have taken place annually. Besides annual plenary meetings, regional meetings have also taken place in each of the Asia Pacific Group, the European Group and the North American Group. Since its founding, the discussion group has produced an official journal, Trialogue.Membership
Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of the think tank's three regional areas. North America is represented by 120 members. The European group has reached its limit of 170 members from almost every country on the continent; the ceilings for individual countries are 20 for Germany, 18 for France, Italy and the United Kingdom, 12 for Spain and 1–6 for the rest. At first Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan, but in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members became the Pacific Asia group, comprising 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations. The Pacific Asia group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The commission now claims "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.The Trilateral Commission's bylaws deny membership to public officials. It draws its members from politics, business, and academia, and has three chairpersons, one from each region. The current chairs are former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Joseph S. Nye, Jr., former head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, and Yasuchika Hasegawa, chair of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.
Leadership
As of June 2020Name | Position |
Jean-Claude Trichet | European Chairman |
Meghan O'Sullivan | North American Chairman |
Akihiko Tanaka | Asia Pacific Chairman |
Alexandra Papalexopoulou | European Deputy Chairman |
Herminio Blanco Mendoza | North American Deputy Chairman |
Barry Desker | Asia Pacific Deputy Chairman |
Carl Bildt | European Deputy Chairman |
Carole Taylor | North American Deputy Chairman |
Jin Roy Ryu | Asia Pacific Deputy Chairman |
David Rockefeller | Founder |
Peter Sutherland | Honorary European Chairman |
Georges Berthoin | European Honorary Chairman |
Paul Volcker | North American Honorary Chairman |
Yasuchika Hasegawa | Asia Pacific Honorary Chairman |
Paolo Magri | European Director |
Richard Fontaine | North American Director |
Hideko Katsumata | Asia Pacific Director |
Notable members
- Bowie, Robert R.
- Brewer, Nicola, British diplomat
- Brzezinski, Zbigniew
- Carter, Jimmy
- Daniel, Caroline, British journalist at the Financial Times
- Donovan, Hedley
- Epstein, Jeffrey
- Gardner, Richard
- Franklin, George S.
- Hunt, Vivian, British businesswoman and partner at consulting firm McKinsey
- Huntington, Samuel P.
- Kingman, John, British businessman and chairman at Legal & General
- Kohnstamm, Max
- Mondale, Walter
- Nye, Joseph
- Owen, Henry D.
- Peel, Stephen, British private equity investor
- Reischauer, Edwin
- Scranton, William
- Starmer, Keir, leader of the UK Labour Party
- Trezise, Philip H.
- Vance, Cyrus
- Warnke, Paul C.
- Willetts, David, British Conservative Party peer
- Yamamoto, Tadashi
Criticisms
Critics accuse the Commission of promoting a global consensus among the international ruling classes in order to manage international affairs in the interest of the financial and industrial elites under the Trilateral umbrella.
In his 1980 book With No Apologies, Republican Senator Barry Goldwater suggested that the discussion group was "a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical... the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved." Right-wing groups such as the John Birch Society and conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones have also promulgated this idea.
Conspiracy theories
Some conspiracy theorists believe the organization to be a central plotter of a world government or synarchy. As documented by journalist Jonathan Kay, Luke Rudkowski interrupted a lecture by former Trilateral Commission director Zbigniew Brzezinski in April 2007 and accused the organization and a few others of having orchestrated the 9/11 attacks to initiate a new world order.
Neo-conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer sardonically alluded to the conspiracy theories when he was asked in 2012 who makes up the "Republican establishment", saying, "Karl Rove is the president. We meet every month on the full moon... the Masonic Temple. We have the ritual: Karl brings the incense, I bring the live lamb and the long knife, and we began... with a pledge of allegiance to the Trilateral Commission."