Trilateral Commission turned China into giant technocracy to serve investors and corporations
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (L) and South Korean President Park Geun-hye attend the sixth China-Japan-South Korea leaders’ meeting in the South Korean capital of Seoul, Nov. 1, 2015. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)
Zbigniew Brzezinski, co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, died Friday.
He was responsible for most of America’s economic woes today caused by our monstrous foreign trade deficit, fortunes and lives lost in Afghanistan, trillions wasted in the Cold War.
Leading the Trilateral effort, Brzezinski became National Security Advisor for President James Carter, and in May 1978, against State Department wishes, began talks that led to full diplomatic relations in December that year.
Brzezinski’s “normalization” of relations with Communist China was designed to change it technologically into a super power.
The following year the Washington Post reports in a February article – China Policy: A Born-Again Brzezinski – how Zbigniew describes his meeting with Cyrus Vance and China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping (Teng): Continue reading →
President Trump should follow example of the original “Swamp Fox” and never hire alligators!
General Francis Marion, known as “The Swamp Fox,” was a Revolutionary officer in the South Carolina Second Regiment, who also led a band of irregular fighters in the back and low-country swamps of South Carolina, fighting the British troops under Lord Cornwallis. He is generally known as the Father of Guerilla Warfare, and is recognized as such at various U.S. War Colleges.
When politicians talk about “draining the swamp”, it immediately brings Marion’s exploits to mind, recalling his determination to struggle in the swamps for our new country, and never compromising – despite immense odds against his small units fighting a disciplined British establishment army.
If you were planning to fight all out – in the Swamp Fox tradition – for free trade, to end internationalism that puts America last, and to bring back jobs to America lost by globalist treaties, would you hire a member of the Trilateral Commission to “coordinate the Administration’s international economic policy and integrate it with national security and foreign policy?” Continue reading →
Trilateral Commission 2016 membership includes the folks who rule America behind the scenes
UPDATEs:
Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzeziński, co-founder of Trilateral Commisssion, died May 27, 2017 at age 89,
David Rockefeller dead March 20, 2017 – founder of Trilateral Commission – was 101 years old
Bill Clinton was a member in 2005. So was George Soros, George H. W. Bush, Madeleine Albright, Tom Foley, Charles Rangel, Dick Gephardt, Richard Perle, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Dianne Feinstein, Fareed Zakaria, David Gergen, Mort Zuckerman, Robert McNamara and Lynne Cheney. Plus money experts like David Rockefeller of Chase Bank, Jaimie Dimon of J P Morgan, Martin Feldstein, Larry Summers, John Thain and Paul Volcker.
That 2005 roster even included a pervert, unmasked three years later – Jeffrey Edward Epstein, who worked at Bear Stearns early in his career and then formed his own firm. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting an underage girl for prostitution, for which he served 13 months in prison.
The Trilateral team divides the world into three groups: North American (120 members), European (170) and Asia-Pacific (200). This year’s meetings were: Continue reading →
The Trilateral Commission – April, 2015, North American membership list, including many very familiar names!
David Rockefeller – “Mr. Trilateral Commission” Photo from pixshark.com
UPDATE: 2016 North American Trilateral Commission list now available here.
Have you ever wondered who were the members of the Trilateral Commission, a group which has been in the forefront of world control conspiracy theories for decades? Corporate heads, government officials in trade and commerce, columnists and publishers are included, along with NGO chiefs. One question is whether public acclaim leads to membership in the commission, or does commission membership lead to opportunities unavailable to the average Joe? Regardless of the answer, the commission’s networking possibilities and possible paths to collusion are vast.
The following are members as of April, 2015. ( italics emphasis by author) Continue reading →
Trilateral Commission Pacific Asian Group complete membership listing
This is the most current (August 2009) list of members of the Pacific Asian Trilateral Commission (TC) and their titles. The “trilateral” (North America, Europe and Asia) group is the source of most Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) philosophical stands on globalization. TC describes its group membership:
“The Japanese Group of 85 members expanded in 2000 to become the Pacific Asian Group and now includes over 100 members from Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the original five ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). Triennium Participants from the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have also participated. The Commission recently began admitting members from China and India.”
This blog previously posted the list of North American members: http://www.fwdpost.com/2009/08/trilateral-commission-membership-north.html and European members: http://www.fwdpost.com/2009/08/trilateral-commission-membership-list.html . Following is the official Pacific Asian roster from the Trilateral Commission:
PACIFIC ASIAN GROUP
Note: Those without city names are Japanese Members.
Korean names are shown with surname first.
Narongchai Akrasanee, Chairman, Board of Directors, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Bangkok; former Minister of Commerce of Thailand
Philip Burdon, Chairman, Asia New Zealand Foundation, Wellington; former Chairman, Asia 2000 Foundation; New Zealand Chairman, APEC; former New Zealand Minister of Trade Negotiations
Fujio Cho, Chairman of the Board, Toyota Motor Corporation
Cho Suck-Rai, Chairman, Hyosung Corporation, Seoul
Chung Mong-Joon, Member, Korean National Assembly, Seoul; Vice President, Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
Tarun Das, Chief Mentor, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), New Delhi
Barry Desker, Dean, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore; Vice Chairman, Singapore Business Federation
Takashi Ejiri, Attorney at Law, Nishimura & Asahi
Jesus P. Estanislao, Chairman, Institute for Solidarity in Asia; Chairman, Institute of Corporate Directors, Manila; former Philippine Secretary of Finance
Hugh Fletcher, Chancellor, The University of Auckland; former Chief Executive Officer, Fletcher Challenge
Hiroaki Fujii, Chairman, Mori Arts Center; Advisor, The Japan Foundation; former Japanese Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Shinji Fukukawa, Chairman, TEPIA, The Machine Industry Memorial Foundation
Yoichi Funabashi, Editor-in-Chief, The Asahi Shimbun
Victor K. Fung, Chairman, Li & Fung, Hong Kong
Carrillo Gantner, President, The Myer Foundation; Melbourne
Ross Garnaut, Professor of Economics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra
Toyoo Gyohten, President, Institute for International Monetary Affairs; Senior Advisor, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd.
Han Sung-Joo, Chairman, The Asan Institute for Policy Studies, Seoul; former President, Korea University; former Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs; former Korean Ambassador to the United States; Pacific Asian Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Stuart Harris, Professor of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra; former Australian Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs
Tan Sri Dato’ Azman Hashim, Chairman, AmBank Group, Kuala Lumpur
John R. Hewson, Chairman, GlobalDC; former Leader of the Federal Opposition, Australia; Special Adviser to the Under Secretary of UNESCAP
Ernest M. Higa, President and Chief Executive Officer, Higa Industries
Hong Seok Hyun, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Joong Ang Ilbo, Seoul; former Korean Ambassador to the United States
Shintaro Hori, Chairman, Bain Capital Japan, Inc.
Murray Horn, Managing Director, Institutional Banking, ANZ (NZ) Ltd., Sydney; Chairman, ANZ Investment Bank; former Parliament Secretary, New Zealand Treasury
Hyun Hong-Choo, Senior Partner, Kim & Chang, Seoul; former Korean Ambassador to the United Nations and to the United States, Seoul
Hyun Jae-Hyun, Chairman, Tong Yang Group, Seoul
Shin’ichi Ichimura, Professor Emeritus, Kyoto University; former Director, International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development, Kitakyushu
Nobuyuki Idei, former Chairman, Sony Corporation; Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Quantum Leaps Corporation
Noriyuki Inoue, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Daikin Industries, Ltd.
Dato’ Seri Mohamed Jawhar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of Strategic International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia
Motoo Kaji, Professor Emeritus, University of Tokyo
Kasem Kasemsri, Honorary Chairman, Thailand-U.S. Business Council, Bangkok; Chairman, Advisory Board, Chart Thai Party; Chairman, Thai-Malaysian Association; former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand
Koichi Kato, Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Secretary-General, Liberal Democratic Party
Kim Kihwan, International Advisor, Goldman Sachs, Asia, Seoul; Chair, Seoul Financial Forum; former Korean Ambassador-at-Large for Economic Affairs
Kim Kyung-Won, President Emeritus, Seoul Forum for International Affairs, Seoul; former Korean Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations; Senior Advisor, Kim & Chang Law Office
Shoichiro Kobayashi, Advisor, Kansai Electric Power Company, Ltd.
Yotaro Kobayashi, former Chairman of the Board, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.; Pacific Asian Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Akira Kojima, Trustee and Senior Fellow, Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER)
Koo John, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, LS Corporation, Seoul
Kenji Kosaka, Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
Lee Hong-Koo, Chairman, Seoul Forum for International Affairs, Seoul; former Korean Prime Minister; former Korean Ambassador to the United Kingdom and the United States
Lee Jay Y., Vice President, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Seoul
Lee Kyungsook Choi, Vice Chairperson, Korean National Committee for UNESCO, Seoul; former Chairperson, Korean Presidential Transition Committee; former President, Sookmyung Women’s University
Lee Shin-wha, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Korea University, Seoul
Richard Li, Chairman, Pacific Century Group Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong
Adrianto Machribie, Chairman, PT Freeport Indonesia, Jakarta
Minoru Makihara, Senior Corporate Advisor, Mitsubishi Corporation
Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Rakuten, Inc.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Managing Director, Bharti Group, Bharti Enterprises Ltd.,
New Dehli
Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ORIX Corporation
Isamu Miyazaki, Honorary Advisor, Daiwa Institute of Research, Ltd.; former Director-General of the Japanese Economic Planning Agency
Yuzaburo Mogi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kikkoman Corporation
Mike Moore, former Director-General, World Trade Organization, Geneva; former Prime Minister of New Zealand
Hugh Morgan, Principal, First Charnock, Melbourne
Moriyuki Motono, former Japanese Ambassador to France
Satoru Murase, Partner, Bingham McCutchen Murase, New York
Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd., Bangalore
Osamu Nagayama, President and Chief Executive Officer, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Philip Ng, Chief Executive Officer, Far East Organization
Masashi Nishihara, President, Research Institute for Peace and Security
Roberto F. de Ocampo, Chairman, Board of Advisors, RFO Center for Public Finance and Regional Economic Cooperation, Manila; former Philippine Secretary of Finance
Sadako Ogata, President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Shijuro Ogata, former Deputy Governor, Japan Development Bank; former Deputy Governor for International Relations, Bank of Japan; Pacific Asian Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Sozaburo Okamatsu, President, Industrial Property Cooperation Center; former Chairman, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI)
Yoshio Okawara, President, Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS); former Japanese Ambassador to the United States
Yoichi Okita, Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Ariyoshi Okumura, Chairman, Lotus Corporate Advisory, Inc.
Ong Keng Yong, Ambassador-at-Large, Minister of Foreign Affairs; Director, Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore; former ASEAN Secretary General
Takuma Otoshi, Chairman, IBM Japan, Ltd.
Anand Panyarachun, Chairman, Thai Industrial Federation, Bangkok; Chairman, Saha-Union Public Company, Ltd.; former Prime Minister of Thailand
Qin Yaqing, Vice President, China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing; Vice President, China National Association for International Studies
Ryu Jin Roy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Poongsan Corp., Seoul
Eisuke Sakakibara, Professor, Waseda University; former Japanese Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs
SaKong Il, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Global Economics, Seoul; former Korean Minister of Finance
Yoshiyasu Sato, Advisor, Tokyo Electric Power Co. Ltd.; former Japanese Ambassador to China
Yukio Satoh, Member of Japan’s National Commission on Public Safety; Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees, The Japan Institute of International Affairs; former Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations
Sachio Semmoto, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, EMOBILE, Ltd.
Masahide Shibusawa, President, Shibusawa Ei’ichi Memorial Foundation
Shin Dong-Bin, Vice-President, Lotte Group, Seoul
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Member, Japanese House of Representatives; former Chief Cabinet Secretary
Arifin Siregar, Chairman of the Governing Board, Indonesian Council on World Affairs (ICWA), Jakarta; former International Advisor, Goldman Sachs (Pacific Asia) LLC; former Ambassador of Indonesia to the United States
Jacob Soetoyo, Executive Director, The Gesit Companies, Jakarta
Shigemitsu Sugisaki, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs Japan Co., Ltd.; former Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Tsuyoshi Takagi, President, JTUC-Rengo (Japanese Trade Union Confederation)
Keizo Takemi, former Member, Japanese House of Councillors; former Vice Minister for Health, Labour and Welfare
Akihiko Tanaka, Managing Director and Executive Vice-President, University of Tokyo
Hitoshi Tanaka, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs
Naoki Tanaka, President, Center for International Public Policy Studies
Teh Kok Peng, President, GIC Special Investments Private Ltd., Singapore
Kiyoshi Tsugawa, Director, Aozora Bank, Ltd.
Junichi Ujiie, Chairman, Nomura Holdings, Inc.
Sarasin Viraphol, Executive Vice President, Charoen Pokphand Co., Ltd., Bangkok; former Deputy Permanent Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Thailand
Cesar E. A. Virata, Director and Corporate Vice Chairman and Acting Chief Executive Officer, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC), Manila; former Prime Minister of Philippines
Jusuf Wanandi, Vice Chairman, Board of Trustees, CSIS Foundation, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Jakarta
Wang Jisi, Dean, School of International Relations, Peking University, Beijing
Etsuya Washio, President, The Foundation for Workers Welfare and Cooperative Insurance; former President, Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)
Koji Watanabe, Senior Fellow, Japan Center for International Exchange; former Japanese Ambassador to Russia
Osamu Watanabe, President, Japan Petroleum Exploration Co., Ltd.
Gordon Wu, Chairman and Managing Director, Hopewell Holdings Ltd., Hong Kong
Wu Jianmin, Professor, China Foreign Affairs University, Beijing; Member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee, Chinese Foreign Ministry
Taizo Yakushiji, Vice President and Executive Research Director, Institute for International Policy Studies
Ryuji Yamada, President and Chief Executive Officer, NTT Docomo, Inc.
Tadashi Yamamoto, President, Japan Center for International Exchange; Pacific Asian Director, Trilateral Commission
Yang Jiemian, President, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, Shanghai
Noriyuki Yonemura, Secretary General, Intellectual Collaboration Group to Promote Market-Oriented Economies
Yuan Ming, Vice Dean, School of International Studies, Peking University, Beijing (invited)
Zhang Yunling, Professor and Director, Academic Division of International Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing
Former Members in Public Service
Hisashi Owada, President, International Court of Justice
PARTICIPANTS FROM OTHER AREAS
“Triennium Participants”
André Azoulay, Adviser to H.M. King Mohammed VI, Rabat, Morocco
Morris Chang, Chairman, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Taipei, Taiwan
Omar Davies, Member of the Jamaican Parliament and former Minister of Finance and Planning, Kingston, Jamaica; former Director General, Planning Institute of Jamaica
Hüsnü Dogan, General Coordinator, Nurol Holding; former Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Development Foundation of Turkey; former Minister of Defence, Ankara, Turkey
Alejandro Foxley, Chilean Minister of Foreign Affairs, Valparaiso, Chile
Jacob A. Frenkel, Vice Chairman, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and Chairman, AIG’s Global Economic Strategies Group, New York, NY; Chairman, and CEO, Group of Thirty (G30); former Chairman, Merrill Lynch International London; former Governor, Bank of Israel; former Professor, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.
Frene Ginwala, former Speaker of the National Assembly, Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
H.R.H. Prince El Hassan bin Talal, President, The Club of Rome; Moderator of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; Chairman, Arab Thought Forum, Amman, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
Ricardo Hausmann, Professor of the Practice of Economic Development, Center for International Development, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chief Economist, Inter-American Development Bank; former Venezuelan Minister of Planning and Member of the Board of the Central Bank of Venezuela
Sergei Karaganov, Dean, School of World Economics and International Affairs, State University–Higher School of Economics; Chairman, Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy; Chairman, Editorial Board, “Russia in Global Affairs,” Moscow
Jeffrey L.S. Koo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Chinatrust Investment, Bank, Taipei, Taiwan
Ricardo Lopez Murphy, Visiting Research Fellow, Latin American Economic Research Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina; former Argentinian Finance Minister and Defence Minister
Andrónico Luksic Craig, Vice Chairman, Banco de Chile, Santiago, Chile
Itamar Rabinovich, Ettinger Chair of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel; Charles and Andrea Bronfman Distinguished Fellow at the Saban Center, The Brookings Institution; Distinguished Global Professor at New York University; Visiting Professor, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; former Ambassador to the United States
Rüsdü Saracoglu, President of the Finance Group, Koç Holding; Chairman, Makro Consulting, Istanbul, Turkey; former State Minister and Member of the Turkish Parliament; former Governor of the Central Bank of Turkey
Roberto Egydio Setubal, President and Chief Executive Officer, Banco Itaú S.A. and Banco Itaú Holding Financeira S.A., Sao Paulo, Brazil
Stan Shih, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Acer Group, Taipei, Taiwan
Grigory A. Yavlinsky, Chairman and Co-Founder of the Russian Democratic Party “Yabloko” and former Member of the State Duma; Chairman of the Center for Economic and Political Research, Moscow, Russian Federation
Trilateral Commission European Group complete membership list
Here is the most current (August 2009) official list of members of the European Trilateral Commission (TC) and their titles. The “trilateral” (North America, Europe and Asia) group is the source of most Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) philosophical stands on globalization. TC describes its group membership:
The European Group, which includes members from Austria, Belgium / Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, now has a ceiling of 170 members, which is divided into national quotas. Germany has a quota of 20; France, Italy, and the United Kingdom each have a quota of 18; and Spain has a quota of 12. The remaining national quotas range from 6 to 1. This blog posted the list of North American members on August 18: http://www.fwdpost.com/2009/08/trilateral-commission-membership-north.html .
Following is the official roster from the Trilateral Commission:
EUROPEAN GROUP
Urban Ahlin, Member of the Swedish Parliament and Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Stockholm
Esko Aho, Executive Vice President, Nokia, Helsinki; former Prime Minister of Finland
Edmond Alphandéry, Chairman, CNP Assurances, Paris; former Chairman, Electricité de France (EDF); former Minister of the Economy and Finance
Jacques Andréani, Ambassadeur de France, Paris; former Ambassador to the United States
Jorge Armindo, President and Chief Executive Officer, Amorim Turismo, Lisbon
Jerzy Baczynski, Editor-in-Chief, Polityka, Warsaw
Patricia Barbizet, Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board of Directors, Artémis Group, Paris
Estela Barbot, Director, AGA; Director, Bank Santander Negocios; Member of the General Council, AEP — Portuguese Business Association, Porto; General Honorary Consul of Guatemala, Lisbon
Erik Belfrage, Senior Vice President, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken; Director, Investor AB, Stockholm
Marek Belka, Director, European Department, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C.; former Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), Geneva; former Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Poland, Warsaw; former Ambassador-at-Large and Chairman, Council for International Coordination, Coalition Provisional Authority, Baghdad
Baron Jean-Pierre Berghmans, Chairman of the Executive Board, Lhoist Group, Limelette, Belgium
Georges Berthoin, International Honorary Chairman, European Movement; Honorary Chairman, The Jean Monnet Association; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission, Paris
Nicolas Beytout, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Les Echos Group; Former Editor of Le Figaro and Les Echos, Paris
Carl Bildt, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden; former Chairman, Kreab Group of public affairs companies; former Chairman, Nordic Venture Network, Stockholm; former Member of the Swedish Parliament, Chairman of the Moderate Party and Prime Minister of Sweden; former European Union High Representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina & UN Special Envoy to the Balkans
Manfred Bischoff, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Daimler AG, Munich; former Member of the Board of Management, Daimler AG; former Chairman, EADS
Antonio Borges, International Advisor and former Managing Director and Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International, London
Ana Patricia Botin, Executive Chairman, Banesto; Vice Chairman, Urbis; Member of the Management Committee, Santander Group, Madrid
Jean-Louis Bourlanges, Member, State Audit Court (Cour des Comptes), Paris; Associated Professor, Institute for Political Studies in Paris; former Member of the European Parliament, Brussels; former President of the European Movement in France, Paris
Jorge Braga de Macedo, President, Tropical Research Institute, Lisbon; Professor of Economics, Nova University at Lisbon; Chairman, Forum Portugal Global; former Minister of Finance
Lord Brittan of Spennithorne, Vice Chairman, UBS Investment Bank, London; former Vice President, European Commission
Jean-Louis Bruguière, EU High Representative to the United States on the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP/SWIFT); Judge, Paris
Robin Buchanan, President and former Dean, London Business School; former Senior Partner, Bain & Company, London
François Bujon de l’Estang, Ambassadeur de France; Chairman, Citi France, Paris; former Ambassador to the United States
Edelgard Bulmahn, Member of the German Bundestag and Chairwoman of the Committee on Economic Affairs; former Federal Minister, Berlin
Sven Burmester, Writer and Explorer, Denmark; former Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Beijing; former World Bank Deputy Secretary and Representative in Cairo
Richard Burrows, Governor, Bank of Ireland; Director, Pernod Ricard; Chairman, the Scotch Whisky Association; former President, IBEC (The Irish Business and Employers Confederation), Dublin
Hervé de Carmoy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, ETAM, Paris; Honorary Chairman, Banque Industrielle et Mobilière Privée, Paris; former Chief Executive, Société Générale de Belgique; Deputy Chairman, European Group, Trilateral Commission
Salvatore Carrubba, Director of Strategies and Columnist, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan; former Culture Alderman, Municipality of Milan
Carme Chacon Piqueras, Minister for Defence; former Minister of Housing; former First Vice-President of the Spanish Parliament, Madrid
Jürgen Chrobog, Chairman, BMW Herbert Quandt Foundation, Munich; former German Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States
Luc Coene, Minister of State; Deputy Governor, National Bank of Belgium, Brussels
Bertrand Collomb, Honorary Chairman, Lafarge; Chairman, Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie (IHEST); Chairman, Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI); Member of the Institut de France, Paris
Patrick Combes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Compagnie Financière Tradition and
Viel & Cie., Paris
Iain Conn, Managing Director and Chief Executive of Refining & Marketing, BP, London
Richard Conroy, Chairman, Conroy Diamonds & Gold, Dublin; Member of Senate, Republic of Ireland
Jean-François Copé, Member of the French National Assembly; Chairman of the UMP Parliamentary Group; former Member of the French Government, Paris
Eckhard Cordes, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board, Franz Haniel & Cie., Duisburg; Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board, Metro; former Member of the Board, DaimlerChrysler, Stuttgart
Alfonso Cortina, Vice Chairman of Rothschild Europe; Senior Advisor for Spain and Latin America of Rothschild; Senior Advisor for Spain of Texas Pacific Group; Member of the Board of Directors of Mutua Madrileña; Member of the International Advisory Board of Allianz AG, Madrid
Eduardo Costa, Executive Vice Chairman, Banco Finantia, Lisbon; Member, Forum Portugal Global
Enrico Tomaso Cucchiani, Member of the Board of Management, Allianz SE, Munich; Chairman, Allianz S.p.A., Trieste
Michel David-Weill, former Chairman, Lazard LLC, worldwide; Chairman of the Supervisory Board, EURAZEO, Paris
Vladimir Dlouhy, Senior Advisor, ABB; International Advisor, Goldman Sachs; former Czechoslovak Minister of Economy; former Czech Minister of Industry & Trade, Prague
Pedro Miguel Echenique, Professor of Physics, University of the Basque Country; President, Foundation Donostia International Physic Center (DIPC); former Basque Minister of Education, San Sebastian
Anna Ekström, President, The Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations, Saco, Stockholm
Guy Elliott, Finance Director, Rio Tinto, London
Oscar Fanjul, Vice Chairman, Omega Capital; former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Repsol, Madrid
Grete Faremo, Consultant; Deputy Chairman of the non-Executive Board, Norsk Hydro ASA; former Director of Law and Corporate Affairs for Western Europe, Microsoft Norway; former Executive Vice President, Storebrand; former Norwegian Minister of Development Cooperation, Minister of Justice and Minister of Oil and Energy, Oslo
Nemesio Fernandez-Cuesta, Executive Director of Upstream, Repsol-YPF; former Chairman, Prensa Española, Madrid
Jürgen Fitschen, Member of the Management Board and Member of the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main
Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, Foreign Editor, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt am Main
Louise Fresco, University Professor, University of Amsterdam; Member of the Board of non-executive Directors, RABO Bank, Utrecht; former Assistant Director-General, Head of Agriculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome
Hugh Friel, Chairman, Tourism Ireland; former Chief Executive Officer, Kerry Group, Tralee, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Lykke Friis, Pro-Rector, University of Copenhagen; Member of the EU Reflection Group on the Future of Europe (Horizon 2020-2030)
Michael Fuchs, Member of the German Bundestag, Berlin; former President, National Federation of German Wholesale & Foreign Trade
Antonio Garrigues Walker, Chairman, Garrigues Abogados y Asesores Tributarios, Madrid
Wolfgang Gerhardt, Member of the German Bundestag; Chairman of the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation; former Chairman of the Free Democratic Party, Berlin
Lord Gilbert, Member of the House of Lords; former Minister for Defence, London
Esther Giménez-Salinas, Rector, Ramon Llull University; Professor of Criminal Law, ESADE Law School, Ramon Llull University, Barcelone
Dermot Gleeson, Chairman, AIB Group, Dublin
Stephen Green, Group Chairman, HSBC, London; Chairman, British Bankers’ Association; Chairman, Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain
Elisabeth Guigou, Member of the French National Assembly; former Minister for European Affairs, Paris
General The Lord Guthrie, Director, N M Rothschild & Sons, London; Member of the House of Lords; former Chief of the Defence Staff, London
Helga Hernes, Senior Advisor, PRIO (International Peace Research Institute Oslo); Chair, Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee, Oslo; former Norwegian Ambassador
Nigel Higgins, Co-Head of Global Investment Banking, N M Rothschild & Sons, London
Wolfgang Ischinger, Global Head of Government Relations, Allianz SE, Munich; Chairman, the Munich Security Conference on Security Policy; former European Member of the Troïka on the Kosovo Status Determination and German Ambassador to the United Kingdom
Mugur Isarescu, Governor, National Bank of Romania, Bucharest; former Prime Minister
Baron Daniel Janssen, Honorary Chairman, Solvay, Brussels
Trinidad Jiménez, International Relations Secretary of the Socialist Party (PSOE) & Member of the Federal Executive Committee; Secretary of State for Latin America, Madrid
Lady Barbara Judge, Chairman, UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority); former US Securities Exchange Commissioner
Béla Kadar, Member of the Hungarian Academy, Budapest; Member of the Monetary Council of the National Bank; President of the Hungarian Economic Association; former Ambassador of Hungary to the O.E.C.D., Paris; former Hungarian Minister of International Economic Relations and Member of Parliament
Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, Chief of the Finnish Defence Forces, Helsinki
Robert Kassai, General Vice President, The National Association of Craftmen’s Corporations, Budapest
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell plc; Member of the House of Lords, London; former British Ambassador to the United States; former Secretary General, European Convention
Sixten Korkman, Managing Director, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA) & Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA), Helsinki
Arpad Kovacs, President, State Audit Office of Hungary, Budapest
Gabor Kovacs, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bankar Holding; Founder, KOGART (the Kovacs Gabor Art Foundation), Budapest
Jerzy Kozminski, President and Chief Executive Officer, Polish-American Freedom Foundation; former Ambassador to the United States; former First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Warsaw
Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Board and Programme Director for Political Research, Centre for Liberal Strategies, Sofia; Editor-in-Chief, Bulgarian Edition, Foreign Policy
Jiri Kunert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, UniCredit Bank Czech Republic; President of the Czech Association of Banks, Prague
Ulysses Kyriacopoulos, Chairman, S&B Group; former Chairman, Federation of Greek Industries, Athens
Count Otto Lambsdorff, Partner, TaylorWessing Lawyers, Düsseldorf; former Chairman, Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Berlin; former Member of German Bundestag; Honorary Chairman, Free Democratic Party; former Federal Minister of Economy; former President of the Liberal International; Honorary European Chairman, The Trilateral Commission, Paris
Kurt Lauk, Member of the European Parliament (EPP Group-CDU); Chairman, Globe Capital Partners, Stuttgart; President, Economic Council of the CDU Party, Berlin; former Member of the Board, DaimlerChrysler, Stuttgart
Anne Lauvergeon, Chief Executive Officer, AREVA, Paris
Eli Leenaars, Member of the Executive Board, ING Group, Amsterdam; Vice Chairman, Netherlands Banker’s Association; Treasurer, European Group, Trilateral Commission
Ulrich Lehner, Chairman of the Board, Henkel, Düsseldorf
Enrico Letta, Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies; former Under State Secretary in the Office of Prime Minister Prodi; former Minister of European Affairs, Industry, and of Industry and International Trade, Rome
Thomas Leysen, Chairman of the Board, Umicore, Brussels
Marianne Lie, Consultant, Norsk Investorforum; former Director General, Norwegian Shipowners Association, Oslo
Erkki Liikanen, Chairman of the Board, Bank of Finland, Helsinki; former Finnish Minister of Finance; former European Commissioner
Peter Löscher, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens, Munich
Cees Maas, Senior Advisor, Cerberus Global Investment Advisors; Honorary Vice Chairman of the ING Group and former Chief Financial Officer, Amsterdam; former Treasurer of the Dutch Government
Abel Matutes, Chairman, Empresas Matutes, Ibiza; former Member of the European Commission, Brussels; former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Madrid
Francis Maude, Member of the British Parliament; Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; Director, Benfield Group; former Shadow Foreign Secretary, London
Friedrich Merz, Member of the German Bundestag; former Member of the European Parliament; former Chairman of the Parliamentary Group of the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, Berlin
Peter Mitterbauer, Honorary President, The Federation of Austrian Industry, Vienna; President and Chief Executive Officer, Miba, Laakirchen
Dominique Moïsi, Special Advisor to the Director General of the French Institute for International Relations (IFRI), Paris
Mario Monti, President, Bocconi University, Milan; Member of the EU Reflection Group on the Future of Europe (Horizon 2020-2030); former Member of the European Commission (Competition Policy); Honorary President, BRUEGEL, Brussels
Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, Chairman, Fiat, Turin; former Chairman, Confindustria (Italian Confederation of Industry), Rome
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; Chairman, Anglo American; former Chairman, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, London
Klaus-Peter Müller, Chairman of the Board, Commerzbank, Frankfurt-am-Main; President, Association of German Banks (BDB), Berlin
Harald Norvik, Chairman and Partner, ECON Management; former President and Chief Executive, Statoil, Oslo
Ewald Nowotny, Governor of the Austrian National Bank; former Chief Executive Officer, BAWAG P.S.K., Vienna
Arend Oetker, President, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP); Vice Chairman, Federation of German Industries; Managing Director, Dr. Arend Oetker Holding, Berlin
Andrzej Olechowski, Founder, Civic Platform; former Chairman, Bank Handlowy; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Finance, Warsaw; Deputy Chairman, European Group, Trilateral Commission
Richard Olver, Chairman, BAE Systems, London
Dimitry Panitza, Founding Chairman, The Free and Democratic Bulgaria Foundation; Founder and Chairman, The Bulgarian School of Politics, Sofia
Lucas Papademos, Vice President, European Central Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main; former Governor of the Bank of Greece
Lord Patten of Barnes, Chancellor of the University of Oxford; Chairman, International Crisis Group, Brussels; former Member of the European Commission (External Relations), Brussels; former Governor of Hong Kong; former Member of the British Cabinet, London
Volker Perthes, Chairman and Director, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), Berlin
Carlo Pesenti, Managing Director, Italcementi, Bergamo
Dieter Pfundt, Personally Liable Partner, Sal. Oppenheim Bank, Frankfurt-am-Main
Josep Piqué, Chairman of the Popular Party of Catalunya, Barcelona; Member of the Parliament of Catalunya; Member of the Spanish Senate; former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Roberto Poli, Chairman, ENI, Rome
Benoît Potier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Air Liquide, Paris
Dieter Rampl, Chairman, UniCredit Group, Milan
Luigi Ramponi, Member of the Italian Senate; former Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, Rome; former Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Italian Army)
Denis Ranque, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Thales, Paris
Wanda Rapaczynski, Advisor to the Supervisory Board and former President of the Management Board, Agora, Warsaw
Heinz Riesenhuber, Member of the German Bundestag; former Federal Minister of Research and Technology, Berlin; Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of Kabel Deutschland and of Evotec Alexander Rinnooy Kan, Chairman, Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), The Hague
Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman, Techint Group of Companies, Milan; Vice President, Confindustria, Rome
H. Onno Ruding, Chairman, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Brussels; former Vice Chairman, Citibank; former Dutch Minister of Finance
Ferdinando Salleo, Vice Chairman, MCC (Mediocredito Centrale), Rome; former Ambassador to the United States
Enrico Salza, Chairman of the Management Board, Intesa Sanpaolo, Turin
Jacques Santer, Honorary State Minister, Luxembourg; former Member of the European Parliament; former President of the European Commission; former Prime Minister of Luxembourg
Silvio Scaglia, Founder, Chairman and Financial backer, Babelgum, London; Chairman, S.M.S. Finance S.A., Luxembourg; former Chairman, Fastweb, Milan
Guido Schmidt-Chiari, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Constantia Group; former Chairman, Creditanstalt Bankverein, Vienna
Henning Schulte-Noelle, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and former Chief Executive Officer, Allianz, Munich
Karel Schwarzenberg, Member of the Czech Senate; former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Founder and Director, Nadace Bohemiae, Prague; former Chancellor to President Havel; former President of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Carlo Secchi, Professor of European Economic Policy and former Rector, Bocconi University; Vice President, ISPI, Milan; former Member of the Italian Senate and of the European Parliament
Tøger Seidenfaden, Editor-in-Chief, Politiken, Copenhagen
Maurizio Sella, Chairman, Gruppo Banca Sella, Biella; former Chairman, Association of Italian Banks (A.B.I.), Rome
Tomasz Sielicki, Vice Chairman, Sygnity, Warsaw
Yves-Thibault de Silguy, Chairman, VINCI, Paris
Slawomir S. Sikora, Chief Executive Officer and Citigroup Country Officer for Poland, Bank Handlowy w Warszawie, Warsaw
Stefano Silvestri, President, Institute for International Affairs (IAI), Rome; Commentator, Il Sole 24 Ore; former Under Secretary of State for Defence, Italy
Lord Simon of Highbury, Member of the House of Lords, Deputy Chairman of Unilever; Non-Executive Director of Suez Group; Senior Adviser of Morgan Stanley Europe; former Minister for Trade & Competitiveness in Europe; former Chairman of BP, London
Nicholas Soames, Member of the British Parliament, London
Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP Group, London
Petar Stoyanov, former President of the Republic of Bulgaria; Member of Bulgarian Parliament; Chairman of Parliamentary Group of United Democratic Forces; Chairman of Union of Democratic Forces, Sofia
Peter Straarup, Chairman of the Executive Board, Danske Bank, Copenhagen; Chairman, the Danish Bankers Association
Peter Sutherland, Chairman, BP p.l.c.; Chairman, Goldman Sachs International; Chairman of the London School of Economics; UN Special Representative for Migration and Development; former Director General, GATT/WTO; former Member of the European Commission; former Attorney General of Ireland; Chairman, European Group, Trilateral Commission
Pavel Telicka, Partner, BXL-Consulting, Prague
Andreas Treichl, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Erste Bank der Oesterreichischen Sparkassen, Vienna
Marco Tronchetti Provera, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pirelli & C., Milan; Deputy Chairman, Confindustria, Rome; former Chairman, Telecom Italia
Elsbeth Tronstad, Executive Director, Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO); former Vice President, ABB, Oslo
Loukas Tsoukalis, Special Adviser to the President of the European Commission; Professor at the University of Athens and the College of Europe; President of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), Athens
Mario Vargas Llosa, Writer and Member of the Royal Spanish Academy, Madrid
Raivo Vare, Partner, Sthenos Group, and OÜ RVVE Group; Member of the President’s Academic Advisory Board; former Minister of State and former Minister of Transport and Communication, Tallinn
George Vassiliou, former Head of the Negotiating Team for the Accession of Cyprus to the European Union; former President of the Republic of Cyprus; former Member of Parliament and Leader of United Democrats, Nicosia
Franco Venturini, Senior Editorial Commentator on Foreign Affairs, Corriere della Sera, Rome
Janne Virkkunen, Senior Editor-in-Chief, Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki
Marko Voljc, Chief Executive Officer, K & H Bank Zrt, Budapest; former General Manager of Central Europe Directorate, KBC Bank Insurance Holding, Brussels; former Chief Executive Officer, Nova Ljubljanska Banka, Ljubljana
Alexandr Vondra, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs; former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prague
Joris Voorhoeve, Member of the Council of State; former Member of the Dutch Parliament; former Minister of Defence, The Hague
Panagis Vourloumis, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hellenic Telecommunications Organization (O.T.E.), Athens
Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of the Board, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), Stockholm
Heinrich Weiss, Chief Executive Officer, SMS, Düsseldorf; former Chairman, Federation of German Industries, Berlin
Nout Wellink, President, Dutch Central Bank, Amsterdam
Hans Wijers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Akzo Nobel, Arnhem
Alexander Wilmot-Sitwell, Chief Executive Officer, UBS, London
Emilio Ybarra, former Chairman, Banco Bilbao-Vizcaya, Madrid
Former Members in Public Service
John Bruton, European Union Ambassador & Head, Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
Lene Espersen, Minister of Justice, Denmark
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia, Tallinn
Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; former Member of the European Commission (Trade), Brussels; former Secretary of State to Northern Ireland and for Trade and Industry, United Kingdom
Karsten D. Voigt, Coordinator of German-American Cooperation, Federal Foreign Ministry, Berlin
Trilateral Commission membership – the complete official North America Group roster
“In my view, the Trilateral Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. All this is to be done in the interest of creating a more peaceful, more productive world community. What the Trilateralists truly intend is the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved. They believe the abundant materialism they propose to create will overwhelm existing differences. As managers and creators of the system they will rule the future.”
Readers of this post will recognize many current and past public officials, including prominent members of the Obama government, as well as past Bush, Clinton, Nixon and Reagan appointees. Where else could you find bedfellows like Condoleezza Rice, Charles Rangel?
NORTH AMERICAN GROUP
Graham Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government; former Special Advisor to the Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan and former Assistant Secretary of Defense under President William Clinton
Richard L. Armitage, President, Armitage International LLC, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Zoë Baird, President, Markle Foundation, New York, NY
James L. Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Research in Motion, Ltd., Waterloo, ON; Chair, Canadian International Council (CIC)
Alan R. Batkin, Vice Chairman, Eton Park Capital Management, New York, NY
Nani Beccalli-Falco, President and Chief Executive Officer, GE International, Brussels, Belgium
C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs
Catherine Bertini, Professor of Public Administration, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY; Senior Fellow, Agricultural Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former Under Secretary-General for Management, United Nations; former Executive Director, UN World Food Program.
Robert D. Blackwill, Senior Fellow, The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA; former Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Planning; former Ambassador to India
Herminio Blanco Mendoza, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Soluciones Estratégicas, Mexico City, NL; former Mexican Secretary of Commerce and Industrial Development
Stephen W. Bosworth, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy; Dean, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Medford, MA; former U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea
David G. Bradley, Chairman, Atlantic Media Company, Washington, DC
Scott Brison, Member of Parliament, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON
Gord Brown, Member of Parliament, House of Commons, Ottawa ON
Harold Brown, Counselor and Trustee, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; former General Partner, Warburg Pincus & Company, New York, NY; former U.S. Secretary of Defense
R. Nicholas Burns, Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Politics, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President, Global Development Programs, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA
Louis C. Camilleri, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Philip Morris International, New York, NY
Raymond Chrétien, Strategic Advisor, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Montreal, QC; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Center for International Studies of the University of Montreal; former Associate Under-Secretary of State of External Affairs; former Ambassador of Canada to the Congo, Belgium, Mexico, the United States and France
Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies, Director of Strategic Studies Program, and Director of Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC; former Counselor to the U.S. Secretary of State
William T. Coleman III, Founder, former Chairman and CEO, Cassatt Corporation; Founder, former Chairman and CEO and Member, Board of Directors, BEA Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA
William T. Coleman, Jr., Senior Partner and the Senior Counselor, O’Melveny & Myers, Washington, DC; former U.S. Secretary of Transportation; Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
Timothy C. Collins, Senior Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ripplewood Holdings, New York, NY
Richard N. Cooper, Maurits C. Boas Professor of International Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chairman, U.S. National Intelligence Council; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs
E. Gerald Corrigan, Chairman, Goldman Sachs Bank USA, New York, NY; former President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Lee Cullum, Contributing Columnist, Dallas Morning News; Radio and Television Commentator, Dallas, TX
H. Lawrence Culp, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer, Danaher Corporation, Washington, DC
Gerald L. Curtis, Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University, New York, NY; Visiting Professor, Waseda University, Tokyo; and former Director, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Lynn Davis, Director, Washington Office, The RAND Corporation, Arlington, VA; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
Arthur A. DeFehr, President and Chief Executive Officer, Palliser Furniture, Winnipeg, MB
André Desmarais, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Power Corporation of Canada, Montréal, QC; Deputy Chairman, Power Financial Corporation
John M. Deutch, Institute Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA; former Director of Central Intelligence; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense
Peter C. Dobell, Founding Director, Parliamentary Centre, Ottawa, ON
Paula J. Dobriansky, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Senior International Affairs and Trade Advisor, Baker & Hostetler, LLP, Washington, DC; former U.S. Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs
Wendy K. Dobson, Professor and Director, Institute for International Business, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON; former Canadian Associate Deputy Minister of Finance
Kenneth M. Duberstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Duberstein Group, Washington, DC; former Chief of Staff to President Ronald Reagan
William C. Dudley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY
Peggy Dulany, Founder and Chair, Synergos Institute, New York, NY
Robert Eckert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mattel, Inc., El Segundo, CA
Jessica P. Einhorn, Dean, Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC; former Managing Director for Finance and Resource Mobilization, World Bank
Dianne Feinstein, Member (D-CA), U.S. Senate
Martin S. Feldstein, Member, U.S. President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; George F. Baker Professor of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; President Emeritus, National Bureau of Economic Research; former Chairman, U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Member, U.S. President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; President and Chief Executive Officer, TIAA-CREF, New York, NY; former Vice Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System
Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel, Jerusalem; former President, Citigroup International and Vice Chairman, Citgroup, New York, NY; former First Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
Richard W. Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Dallas, TX; former U.S. Deputy Trade Representative
Thomas S. Foley, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan; former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; former North American Chairman, Trilateral Commission, Washington, DC
Kristin J. Forbes, Associate Professor of International Economics, MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA; former Member of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisors
Francis Fukuyama, Bernard L. Schwartz Professor International Political Economy, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, The Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC
Dionisio Garza, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, ALFA, Garza Garcia, NL
Richard A. Gephardt, Senior Counsel, DLA Piper, Washington, DC; former Member (D-MO), U.S. House of Representatives
David Gergen, Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; Editor-at-Large, U.S. News and World Report
Francisco Gil-Díaz, Executive President, Telefónica de España-México and Central América, Mexico City, DF
Peter C. Godsoe, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank, Toronto, ON
Donald Gogel, President and Chief Executive Officer, Clayton Dubilier and Rice, New York, NY
Bill Graham, former Member of Canadian House of Commons; former Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Defence, Ottawa; Chancellor, Trinity College, University of Toronto; Chair of The Atlantic Council of Canada; Co-Vice Chair of Canadian International Council
Donald E. Graham, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Washington Post Company, Washington, DC
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY; former Director, Policy Planning, U. S. Department of State; former Director of Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution
James T. Hackett, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., The Woodlands, TX
John J. Hamre, President, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)
William A. Haseltine, President, William A. Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts, Washington, DC; Founder and former Chairman and Chief Executive, Human Genome Sciences
Richard F. Haskayne, Board Chairman Emeritus, University of Calgary, AB; past Chairman of the Board of TransCanada Corporation
Carlos Heredia, Economist, Mexico City, DF; Advisor to the Governor of Michoacán
John B. Hess, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Hess Corporation, New York, NY
Carla A. Hills, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hills & Company, International Consultants, Washington, DC; former U.S. Trade Representative; former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Karen Elliott House, Writer, Princeton, NJ; Adjunct Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, and Publisher, The Wall Street Journal
Walter Isaacson, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Aspen Institute, Washington DC
Alejandro Junco de la Vega, President and Director, Grupo Reforma, Monterrey, NL
Robert Kagan, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington, DC
Arnold Kanter, Principal and Founding Member, The Scowcroft Group, Washington, DC; former U.S. Under Secretary of State
Charles R. Kaye, Co-President, Warburg Pincus LLC, New York, NY
Colin Kenney, Member, Canadian Senate, Ottawa, ON
Robert M. Kimmitt, Senior International Counsel, WilmerHale, Washington, DC; former U. S. Deputy Secretary of The Treasury
James Kimsey, President and Executive Director, The Kimsey Foundation, Washington, DC
Henry A. Kissinger, Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc., New York, NY; former U.S. Secretary of State; former U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
Michael Klein, former Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Citi Markets & Banking; New York, NY
Enrique Krauze, General Director, Editorial Clio Libros y Videos, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, DF
Fred Langhammer, Chairman, Global Affairs, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc., New York, NY
Winston Lord, Chairman Emeritus and former Co-Chairman of the Board, International Rescue Committee, New York, NY; former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to China
E. Peter Lougheed, Counsel, Bennett Jones, Barristers & Solicitors, Calgary, AB; former Premier of Alberta
Roy MacLaren, former Canadian Minister; Toronto, ON
John A. MacNaughton, Chairman, Business Development Bank of Canada, and Chairman of Canadian Trading and Quotation System Inc., Toronto, ON
Antonio Madero, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, San Luis Corporacion, S.A. de C.V., Mexico City, DF
John Manley, Counsel, McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Ottawa, ON; former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
Sir Deryck Maughan, Member, KKR & Co.; Head, Global Financial Services Group; New York, NY
Jay Mazur, President Emeritus, UNITE (Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, and President, ILGWU’s 21st Century Heritage Foundation, New York, NY
Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, McGill University, Montreal, QC
John D. Negroponte, Vice Chair, McLarty Associates, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State; former U.S. Director of National Intelligence; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor and former Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chair, National Intelligence Council and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; North American Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Meghan L. O’Sullivan, Lecturer in Public Policy, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, National Security Council, The White House
Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Harman International Industries, Inc., Stamford, CT
Thomas R. Pickering, Vice Chairman, Hills & Company, International Consultants, Washington, DC; former Senior Vice President, International Relations, The Boeing Company, Arlington, VA; former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs; former U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the United Nations
Martha C. Piper, former President and Vice-Chancellor, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Richard Plepler, Co-president, HBO, New York, NY
John Podesta, President and Chief Executive Officer, Center for American Progress, Washington, DC; former Chief of Staff to President William J. Clinton
Adam Posen, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC
Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Vice Chairman, The Cohen Group, Washington, DC; former Commander, U.S. European Command, and Supreme Allied Commander NATO; former Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, U.S. Department of Defense
Charles B. Rangel, Member (D-NY), U.S. House of Representatives
Federico Reyes Heroles, Writer and Political Analyst, Chairman of the Board of Este Pais Magazine, and Chairman of the Board, Transparencia Mexicana, Mexico City, DF
Condoleezza Rice, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University, and Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, Hoover Institution, Palo Alto, CA; former U. S. Secretary of State; former National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush
Hartley Richardson, President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director, James Richardson & Sons, Ltd., Winnipeg, MB
Joseph E. Robert, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Office, J.E. Robert Companies, McLean, VA
David Rockefeller, Founder, Honorary Chairman, and Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission, New York, NY
John D. Rockefeller IV, Member (D-WV), U.S. Senate
Kenneth Rogoff, Professor of Economics and Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; former Chief Economist, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC
Charles Rose, Host of the Charlie Rose Show and Charlie Rose Special Edition, PBS, New York, NY
Irene B. Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kraft Foods, Inc., Northfield, IL
David M. Rubenstein, Co-founder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group, Washington, DC
Luis Rubio, President, Center of Research for Development (CIDAC), Mexico City, DF
Arthur F. Ryan, former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Prudential Financial, Inc., Newark, NJ
Susan Schwab, Professor, Maryland School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD; former U.S. Trade Representative
Hugh Segal, Member, Canadian Senate (Conservative, Ontario); Member, Special Senate Committee on Terrorism; former Chair, Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs; Vice Chair (Research), Canadian International Council; and former President, Institute for Research on Public Policy
Jaime Serra, Chairman, SAI Consulting, Mexico City, DF; former Mexican Minister of Trade and Industry
Susan Shirk, Director, University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, La Jolla, CA
Dinakar Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, TPG-Axon Capital, New York, NY; former Co-head, Principal Strategies Department, Goldman Sachs
Gordon Smith, Director, Centre for Global Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC
Donald R. Sobey, Chairman Emeritus, Empire Company Ltd., Halifax, NS
Ronald D. Southern, Chairman, ATCO Group, Calgary, AB
Jessica Stern, Academic Director, Program on Terrorism and the Law, Harvard Law School, and Lecturer on Law and Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Barbara Stymiest, Chief Operating Officer, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto, ON
John J. Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO, Washington, DC
Strobe Talbott, President, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Luis Téllez, Chairman, Bolsa Mexicana; former Secretary of Communications and Transportation of Mexico
George J. Tenet, Managing Director, Allen & Company, New York, NY; former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence
G. Richard Thoman, Managing Partner, Corporate Perspectives and Adjunct Professor, Columbia University, New York, NY; former President and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation; former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, IBM Corporation
Frances Fragos Townsend, Partner, Baker Botts L.L.P., Washington, DC; CNN National Security Contributor; former Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and Chair, Homeland Security Council
Paul A. Volcker, Chairman, President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board; former Chairman, Wolfensohn & Co., Inc., New York; Frederick H. Schultz Professor Emeritus, International Economic Policy, Princeton University; former Chairman, Board of Governors, U.S. Federal Reserve System; Honorary North American Chairman and former North American Chairman, Trilateral Commission
David Walker, President and CEO, Peter G. Peterson Foundation, New York, NY
R. Keith Walton, Chief Adminstrative Officer, Global Infrastructure Partners, New York, NY
William H. Webster, Senior Partner, Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, Washington, DC; former U.S. Director of Central Intelligence; former Director, U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation; former Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
Lorenzo H. Zambrano, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, CEMEX, Monterrey, NL; North American Deputy Chairman, Trilateral Commission
Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Yale University, New Haven, CT; former President of Mexico
Philip Zelikow, White Burkett Miller Professor of History, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA; former Counselor, U.S. Department of State; former Executive Director, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (“9/11 Commission”)
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, U.S. News & World Report, and Publisher, New York Daily News; Founder and Chairman of Boston Properties, Inc.; New York, NY
Former Members in Public Service
Adm. Dennis B. Blair, U.S. Director of National Intelligence
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy*
Lael Brainard, Under Secretary for International Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Kurt Campbell, Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. State Department
Thomas E. Donilon, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
Diana Farrell, Deputy Director, National Economic Council, and Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, The White House
Michael B. G. Froman, Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security and Economic Policy, The White House
Timothy F. Geithner, U.S. Secretary of The Treasury
Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan
Gen. James L. Jones, U.S. National Security Advisor
Steven Koonin, Under Secretary for Science, U.S. Department of Energy
Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
Dennis Ross, Senior Advisor, National Security Council
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Director of Policy Planning, U. S. Department of State
James B. Steinberg, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Lawrence H. Summers, Director, National Economic Council, The White House
Robert B. Zoellick, President, World Bank
Conclusion – Trilateral and Kissinger
The following excerpt is the conclusion of a recent speech by Henry Kissinger to the Trilateral Commission. Part two was yesterday.
THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
2009 PLENARYMEETING – TOKYO, JAPAN, APRIL 26, 2009
THE INTELLECTUAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE TRILATERAL PARTNERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Henry Kissinger:
So, it is an enterprise that must be undertaken, but it is an enterprise also that needs to be looked at or studied in the excruciating detail that it involves. It is not something that you can achieve with placards or in outbursts of pacifism. It is because when you ask yourself of the impact on the world of the reduction of nuclear weapons, each phase of this has its own aspects and each phase will lead to a very complicated political discussion.
I have been very much engaged in putting Russian-American relations on a new basis. In dealing with Russian strategists one learns that the notion we had in the 1970s of a Russia with unlimited reserves of manpower, threatening Europe militarily with its conventional force, that had to be opposed with nuclear weapons on the ground is totally reversed. It is Russia today that thinks that it is surrounded by countries with unlimited reserves of manpower and unlimited ideological commitment and that it, therefore, had its own necessities for nuclear weapons which cannot be simply analyzed in terms of the overall deterrence of the United States and Russian equation.
The issue of nuclear weapons has similarities to the Schleswig-Holstein Question in the 19th century, about which Lord Palmerston said there were only three people who had ever understood it: one was dead, the second was in a lunatic asylum, and he himself was the third and he had forgotten all about it. We have to be the third on this issue and we have to learn about it. This is one of the great challenges before us.
All of us here have been affected by the rise of China, and it has been an explicit and an unspoken aspect of many of our discussions. It has never happened before that a country of such magnitude entered the international system without conflict and yet this is precisely the challenge that our international order faces.
There are two aspects to this. One is, What is Chinese policy? Is it Chinese military policy to dominate the region? This is something one can affect, and must affect, by discussions. The second is the weight of China. Regardless of the intentions of Chinese leaders, the weight of China will increase. It is inevitable; it is a fact of life; and it must, therefore, be considered in any discussions we have about a new international system.
This requires, on the side of China, wisdom and restraint, and it requires, on the side of its surrounding countries, comparable wisdom and restraint. Looked at from this point of view, no conversation in the world today is more important than the American and Chinese strategic dialogue.
This does not derogate from any of our alliances; it is not a way of governing the world. Quite the contrary, it is a dialogue that makes it possible to create a multipolar world based on the recognition by two of the countries that are the principal carriers of international economic and strategic power of the role that they must play in this.
So what we need to think about is this. What matters can only be done, or can best be done, on a global basis? What matters should be done on a regional basis? What issues require specific, limited groupings to deal with them?
This afternoon, we have heard about the issue of Afghanistan, and that issue and the Pakistan issue involve, really, two problems. One is the traditional military problem of how do you deal with the challenge to order that has presented itself. But secondly, there is the necessity of creating a political system in the region that enables all of the countries that are potentially affected by this to act in a unified manner over an extended period of time.
On this we could find that India, China, Russia, Iran, and the United States have parallel objectives, and the challenge will be, first of all, to define these objectives to ourselves in a way that can be translated into action and, secondly, to use the combined pressures that they can exercise to diminish the purely American military aspect of it and merge it into this international system.
In a deep way, this is exactly the problem we face also with respect to North Korea and Iran. Whatever the debate is about the military significance of their weapons, the fact is that we have a situation in which the international community has expressed its determination that there not be nuclear weapons programs in those countries. If they now occur anyway, how can one then still speak of a meaningful international consensus? Of course, there could be a negotiation to achieve this.
Having described all of these complexities, let me leave us with a positive feeling. First, the international financial crisis can help the creation of an international political order for a negative reason. Every country is so preoccupied with its own domestic issues; no country has a great surplus of resources that it can devote to international adventures. So, if political leadership can develop, this is a good objective circumstance.
Secondly, we are living in a period in which, for the first time that I know of, no major country is challenging the international system. All of the challenges to the international system come from countries that, in relation to the overall order, are relatively fringe countries or from non-state actors. So, the opportunities that we can see in developing the global patterns that are inherent in this situation are very great despite the fact that the surface knowledge is the opposite.
To all of this I think this Trilateral Commission can make a significant intellectual contribution. It can raise issues; it can define them in a long-range point of view; and it can help with one of the great needs of this period, which is that governments are so preoccupied with the immediate issues that there is sometimes no focal point for a consistent application of long-range visions.
So we can raise issues, we can indicate directions, and in this way we can fulfill the vision that created the Trilateral Commission when it operated in a smaller framework and when one of its primary purposes was to bring Japan into a North Atlantic framework. Now it can help bring Asia and Russia into a coherent global framework.
Henry A. Kissinger is Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc., New York, NY; former U.S. Secretary of State; former U.S. Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; and Lifetime Trustee, Trilateral Commission
Kissinger and Trilateral Commission – Part 2
The following excerpt is Part 2 of a recent speech by Henry Kissinger to the Trilateral Commission is fascinating. Part one was yesterday. Tomorrow’s post will be a continuation.
THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
2009 PLENARYMEETING – TOKYO, JAPAN, APRIL 26, 2009
THE INTELLECTUAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE TRILATERAL PARTNERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Dr. Henry Kissinger
Therefore, some of the disagreements that have existed between Europe and the United States are not due primarily to the personality of American leaders, though they were not aided by some of the arguments that the American leaders made. Their fundamental cause is the fact that European public opinion is very reluctant to engage in foreign policy beyond soft power. It is not a lack of loyalty to the alliance; it is not a lack of understanding of what the issues are; it is the fact that in Europe, the nation-state—based on its experience in two world wars—cannot conduct a strategic foreign policy involving significant sacrifices, and the European Union has not yet substituted a political concept.
Therefore, a wise policy will keep that in mind, and I believe the Obama administration has acted wisely in Afghanistan in not making an issue of the disparity between the formal NATO commitment and the willingness of the Europeans to support it. I would prefer a different attitude, but I think that if we push that issue, we will weaken our relationship. And in a more fundamental way, as we think of the way the international order is likely to evolve, we need to understand what Europe can and cannot do and how the North Atlantic alliance needs to be defined to fit the current circumstances.
In other parts of the world, the notion of sovereignty has also collapsed, but for quite different reasons. In the Islamic world, particularly in the Middle East, the notion of a sovereign state conducting an autonomous foreign policy was brought in at the end of World War I by the European countries. It, therefore, has not ever, and certainly does not now, attracted the loyalties that the European nation-state had at its fully developed period. What has emerged is a concept of Islamism that challenges the notion of the secular state and, in some cases, the existence of the actual states.
The principal country in that area that is conducting a traditional foreign policy in some respects is Iran because it has the tradition of an empire. It has had a national identity, but it is now using it, at least in part, to support the Islamic movements that undermine the secular state.
The principal place where the traditional international system still exists in its more or less pure form is in Asia. The nations of Asia have the kind of national loyalties that were characteristic of the European states. Strategic conflict between the European states is practically inconceivable. In Asia, war is highly unlikely, but there is a tendency to consider each other as potential strategic adversaries. At any rate, a balancing of power of the various states is always in the back of their minds.
So, as the center of gravity of international affairs moves to the Pacific and to the Indian Ocean, there are, in a way, two somewhat contradictory approaches to international affairs that are being conducted, and, if other conditions had not changed, one would predict for Asia some of the kinds of conflicts that existed previously in the evolution of European history.
The reason that conflict is not likely is the emergence of global issues that can only be dealt with on a global basis—issues like climate, the environment, energy, trade, weapons of mass destruction—and they impel a global approach. And there is another element. The nations of Europe went to war with each other because they thought the consequences of defeat were worse than the consequences of war.
Nobody with modern weapons can have any illusions that the consequences of war will not have the most drastic impact on modern societies. And so, the rise of Asia has to be accommodated in an international system that is based on cooperation and on dialogue without the recourse to military measures that used to dominate international affairs.
But that raises the question of how does one do this? In history, international orders emerged either by consensus or by some application of a balance of power. Now, ideally, one would like to see order emerge out of consensus. But history teaches, and our own experience teaches us, that in groups based on consensus there is very often an unequal willingness to assume risks and, therefore, leadership groups emerge within the consensus group that assume responsibility, or the whole thing will gradually stagnate and fall apart.
But then, the question arises, how does one apply this in the multipolar world that I have described? How can one get either consensus or equilibrium when the various actors are states but they can also be NGOs and they can also be non-state groups. This is the challenge of our time, and this is where a group like this can be of great importance. This group can raise questions that the governments sometimes do not find it possible to address, and it can provide a possible consensus to which governments can repair or which they can use as they make their decisions.
This applies to a number of issues. Let me give one example that was raised by President Obama in Prague, the issue of a world without nuclear weapons. That is a goal every American president has avowed since the beginning of the nuclear age and it has attracted enormous support and been supported by any number of intellectual groups. But the fact is that as a practical matter it is extraordinarily difficult to reach and, in fact, impossible to reach under present circumstances.
At the Munich Security Conference, I quoted Senator Sam Nunn, who is a colleague of mine, on having talked about this project, together with George Shultz and Bill Perry. Senator Nunn puts it this way: “The project is like trying to climb a mountain that is covered in clouds. And you announce that you want to reach the summit but you have no idea what the summit looks like.
On the other hand, you will never understand what the summit looks like until you begin the journey and start going into the clouds, and in that process it may become clearer to you. In fact, you cannot do it unless you undertake that journey.” Now the reason I and others who have been in my office and who were known as hardliners have cooperated in this project is that we have all had the experience of asking ourselves, “What would we do if we had to make the decision to use nuclear weapons?”
Each of us understood that this was a decision of a magnitude that goes beyond anything in previous political experience and probably of a magnitude that can have no moral justification.
(continued tomorrow)
Kissinger raps U.S. at Trilateral Commission plenary meeting in Tokyo, Japan
THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
2009 PLENARYMEETING – TOKYO, JAPAN, APRIL 26, 2009
THE INTELLECTUAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE TRILATERAL PARTNERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Dr. Henry Kissinger
When the Trilateral Commission was started in 1974, the world was essentially a bipolar world. The idea of David Rockefeller and his colleagues was to bring Japan into a dialogue with what was then the center of global thinking and power, namely, the North Atlantic area. China had just begun its relationship with the United States—it was not a significant economic factor—and Japan was an outpost in Asia for the concerns that were evolved primarily in the North Atlantic context. Since then, the international system has changed fundamentally.Let me talk about the nature of the international order and the issues in relation to the international order that I see emerging and which require some global group that addresses them.
Since 1974, we have seen the collapse of the Soviet Union, the unification of Germany, the rise of China, and the abandonment by India of its non-alignment and its active participation in global affairs.
We have also seen the rise of nongovernmental organizations—some terrorist, some nongovernmental organizations that undertake positive work, but all of them active in a manner that was marginal or nonexistent when we conducted Middle East policy in the administration in which I served. Terrorism was a very marginal phenomenon. We dealt with governments and we thought we had a difficult time, but those governments were only marginally affected by the groups that avowed terrorism.
We have seen the shift of the center of gravity of international affairs from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and that is one of the major themes of this new period. We have seen the collapse of the financial system that had been believed to be—in the 1980s and 1990s— the pillar of the economic financial order.
About this I will make a few observations. Some of the discussions with respect to the economic system create the impression that their advocates believe that, at the end of the current crisis, we will go back to a slightly improved version of the previous system, with perhaps some more regulation. I do not believe that that is possible. There are a number of reasons why that will not be the case.
I do not think it will be possible or desirable to restore the dominant position of the United States, and one of the key issues that needs to be discussed in this group and others is how one can have an international economic system that has various centers of power, not one that is dominated by one country.
In fact, one of the consequences of the financial crisis is a certain loss of confidence in the United States across the board. Many governments and many countries had become used to the proposition that in the political world we have flights of inspiration that prove temporary. But in the economic world it had been assumed that the US model was the one that was correct and that would be permanent. The fact that this has proved not to be the case will affect the American ability to prescribe solutions in a fundamental way.
I also think that the role of government in the next period, for better or worse, will be much larger and that attention will have to paid to the fundamental flaw of the globalized economic system as it existed before, which was that the economic model and the political model were out of sync with each other.
The global economic model assumed that there were principles that could be applied universally and that it was self-regulating. For that reason it was not believed to be necessary to have a political safety net for the economic system. But the fact was that whenever a crisis occurred, or whenever any group felt significantly disadvantaged, they would go to the political institutions that they knew, which were the national governments.
Therefore, there was an inherent discontinuity between the way economics was dealt with and the way politics would react. This has been shown by the fact that in the first round of this crisis, the solutions are attempted on a national basis—which are then coordinated—and not on a global basis. So, all of these matters will need attention and they will need attention in a very special context. Every country that holds the views that I described, which is most of them, has two contradictory motivations.
On the one hand, they want to make themselves independent of the forces that produced the crisis and, at the same time, they recognize that the solutions require a global answer. The result will have to be the evolution of some kind of multipolar leadership of the international system.
Let me now turn to that issue. The political world is in a period of fundamental change. When I taught international politics, we dealt with the concept of sovereignty as the organizing principle of the international system, both for foreign policy and for domestic policy. But now the notion of sovereignty is under attack or in the process of change in many parts of the world. Europe, which originated the concept of the nation-state, has voluntarily surrendered part of its sovereignty to the European Union.
But the European Union has not been able, up to now, to generate the political loyalties that the nation-state did. Therefore there is a gap in Europe between the way foreign policy used to be conducted when the nation-state was the repository of all national loyalties and the current situation where on the economic level the European Union becomes stronger but there is no repository for the kind of strategic foreign policy that used to be characteristic of Europe.
