Trilateral Commission

The Trilateral Commission is

a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973, principally by the American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, an internationalist who sought to address the challenges posed by the growing economic and political interdependence between the U.S. and its allies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The leadership of the organization has since focused on returning to "our roots as a group of countries sharing common values and a commitment to the rule of law, open economies and societies, and democratic principles".

The Trilateral Commission is headed by an executive committee and three regional chairs representing Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, respectively. Meetings are held annually at locations that rotate among the three regions; regional and national meetings are held throughout the year. Most gatherings focus on discussing reports and debating strategy to meet the commission's aims.

The Trilateral Commission represents influential commercial and political interests. As of 2021, there were roughly 400 members, including leading figures in politics, business, media, and academia. Each country within the three regions is assigned a quota of members reflecting its relative political and economic strength.

History

Founding

The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Japan, North American nations (the U.S. and Canada), and Western European nations

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... [and] 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."

Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Rockefeller advisor who was a specialist on international affairs (and later President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981), left Columbia University to organize the group, along with:

Edwin Reischauer, professor at Harvard University and United States Ambassador to Japan, 19611966
George S. Franklin, executive director of the Council on Foreign Relations 1953–1971
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 Sleepy Hollow, New York.

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: 20 Canadian, 13 Mexican and 87 American. 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, seven Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The commission now claims "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.

Leadership

As of September 2021

{| class=wikitable

!Name

!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

|Jeffrey Simpson || North American Deputy Chairman

|Jin Roy Ryu || Asia Pacific Deputy Chairman

|David Rockefeller (deceased) || Founder

|Peter Sutherland (deceased) || Honorary European Chairman

|Georges Berthoin (deceased) || European Honorary Chairman

|Paul Volcker (deceased) || 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

Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School
Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University
Catherine Bertini, Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State 2021–2025, son of Donald Mayer Blinken, stepson of Samuel Pisar
Sophie Boissard, Chief Executive Officer, Korian Group
Robert R. Bowie, Director of Policy Planning 1953–1957, Foreign Policy Association, co-founder with Henry Kissinger of Harvard Center for International Affairs 1958, Counselor of the State Department 1966–1968, CFR, CIA Chief National Intelligence Officer 1977–1979
Lael Brainard, Chairman of the U.S. National Economic Council; member of U.S. Federal Reserve's Board of Governors; former Under Secretary U.S. Treasury
Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media
Mark Brzezinski, president and CEO of Brzezinski Strategies LLC, son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, and U.S. Ambassador to Sweden 2011–2015
George H. W. Bush, President of the United States 1989–1993, Vice President of the United States 1981-1989
Richard Cannings (British Columbia politician) Canadian Member of Parliament
Ash Carter, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, U.S. Secretary of Defense 2015–2017, CFR board, Aspen Strategy Group, Atlantic Council honorary director
Jimmy Carter, President of the United States 1977–1981
Caroline Daniel, British journalist, Financial Times
John M. Deutch, Director of CIA 1995–1996, Aspen Strategy Group)
Jeffrey Epstein, former hedge fund manager convicted of sex trafficking in 2008, described as "an enthusiastic member of the Trilateral Commission" in 2002
Dawn Farrell, President and CEO, TransAlta Corporation
Diana Farrell, former CEO and President, JP Morgan Institute, former Head of McKinsey Global Institute, former Deputy Director, U.S. National Economic Council
Laurence "Larry" Fink, CFR board member, BlackRock CEO since 1988, WEF trustee
George S. Franklin, executive director of the Council on Foreign Relations 1953–1971
Jamie S. Gorelick, partner at WilmerHale, U.S. Deputy Attorney General 1994–1997, General Counsel of DoD 1993–1994, defended BP after 2010 oil spill, 9/11 Commission member, Amazon board member
Kelly Grier, former U.S. Chair and Managing Partner, EY
Jane Harman, former Member, U.S. House of Representatives; President Emerita, Wilson Center
Linda Hasenfratz, CEO, Linamar Corporation
Anniken Hauglie, former Director General, Norwegian Oil and Gas Association, former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Norway
Kerry Healey, President of the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream; former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
Marillyn A. Hewson, Former Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Fiona Hill, The Globalist writer, former Senior Director for Europe and Russia of the NSC
Carla Anderson Hills, CFR co-chair 2007–2017, U.S. HUD Secretary 1975–1977, U.S. Trade Representative 1989–1993
Max Kohnstamm, European Policy Centre
Stephanie Kusie, Canadian Member of Parliament
Monique Leroux, Former Chair of the Board and CEO, Desjardins Group
Tove Lifvendahl, political editor-in-chief of Svenska Dagbladet
Cecilia Malmstrom, former European Commissioner for Trade, European Commission
Heather McPherson, Canadian Member of Parliament
Judith A. "Jami" Miscik, CFR vice chair, CIA Deputy Director for Intelligence 2002–2005, Global Head of Sovereign Risk at Lehman Brothers 2005–2008, PIAB chair 2014–2017, president/vice-chair of Kissinger Associates since 2009
Heather Munroe-Blum, Chair, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board
John Negroponte, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State 2007–2009, UN Ambassador 2001–2004, first Director of National Intelligence 2005–2007, subject of The Ambassador, brother of MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte
Meghan O'Sullivan, Trilateral Commission North American chair, CFR board, Aspen Strategy Group
Henry D. Owen, foreign policy studies director at the Brookings Institution
Güler Sabancı, Turkish businesswoman, chair of Sabancı Holding
Rajiv Shah, Rockefeller Foundation president, Atlantic Council board
James B. Steinberg, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State 2009–2011 under Obama, Deputy National Security Advisor 1997–2001 under Clinton, CFR member, Aspen Strategy Group, Bilderberg attendee
Marcus "Husky" Wallenberg, Swedish banker formerly at Citibank, Deutsche Bank, S. G. Warburg & Co., Citicorp and the SEB Group
Paul C. Warnke, Center for Law and Social Policy, Clifford, Warnke, Glass, McIlwain & Finney

Assessments

Social critic and academic Noam Chomsky has criticized the commission as undemocratic, pointing to its key publication The Crisis of Democracy, which describes the strong popular interest in politics during the 1970s as an "excess of democracy". He has cited it as one of the most interesting and insightful books showing the modern democratic system not to really be a democracy at all, but controlled by elites who seek to keep the general public disengaged from genuine democratic participation by subtle and mostly non-violent methods and to redefine democracy itself in operative terms that enshrine their own interests as a tiny privileged minority. Chomsky adds that as it was an internal discussion, they felt free to "let their hair down" and to talk openly about the need for an increasingly active and defiant public to be reduced back to its proper state of apathy and obedience lest it continue to use democratic means to deprive them of their power.

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... [in] the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved."

Conspiracy theories involving the Trilateral Commission

Some conspiracy theorists believe the organization to be a central plotter of a world government or synarchy. In his book Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground, Jonathan Kay wrote that 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.

Economist Anthony C. Sutton was critical of the Trilateral Commission's goals and methods, characterizing them as a "rich man's club." Yet he also wrote: "The Trilateral Commission is not a conspiracy. Its membership list is completely public - it costs a postage stamp to get one" and characterized the group as "completely above ground" in promoting their agenda. Furthermore, Sutton noted he had debated a high-ranking member of the group on a radio broadcast and concluded: "Conspirators just don't appear on radio talk shows to debate their objectives."

Neo-conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer mockingly alluded to the conspiracy theories about the commission 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... [at] 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."

Publications

Books

References

External links

Membership as of August 2011
Membership as of April 2015
Membership as of December 2016
Membership as of September 2021
Membership as of March 2022
The Trilateral Commission (North America) records, 1972-2001. DIMES: The Online Collection and Catalog of Rockefeller Archive Center
Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world? (Fact check against conspiracy theories from The Straight Dope, 1987)