ABSTRACT ON THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION Thesis: The Trilateral Commission has historically and continues to advocate, advise on, and author structures and policies of, international cooperation and economic interdependence; this interdependence and cooperation is managed by the Commission to protect and expand the regional and global interests of Transnational capital. I. The Trilateral Commission occupies a unique niche in the web of international organizations, by virtue of its membership and its mission. Sklar, Holly, ed. Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. Boston: South End Press, 1980. Trilateral Commission. Trilateral Commission Task Force Reports 1-7: the Triangle Papers. New York: New York University Press, 1977. Trilateral Commission. Trilateral Commission Task Force Reports 9-14: the Triangle Papers. New York: New York University Press, 1978. II. The Trilateral Commission, as an association of the 'elites' of Western Europe, the United States and Canada, and Japan, functions in an unofficial advisory role to the IBRD (World Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Union (EU). Gill, Stephen. American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Sklar. Trilateral Commission. (Both) III. The goals and the role of the Trilateral Commission are changing in light of the decline of the Communist Bloc, and the growth of international cooperation, integration, and interdependence. Gill. Sklar. Stubbs, Richard and Underhill, Geoffrey R.D. Political Economy and the Changing Global Order. London: Macmillan, 1994. Trilateral Commission (Both) IV. The transition of the Trilateral Commission from an interest group representing economic, governmental, and academic 'elites' from the trilateral regions, to a model for the management of regional and global cooperation through IGOs and INGOs in a post-national framework can be extrapolated given the stated objectives of the Trilateral Commission, within the context of an emergent new transnational, regionally based arrangement. The Trilateral Commission officially coalesced in July 1973, as an international organization comprised of the 'elites' of Western European, American and Canadian, and Japanese international business and banking, government, academia, media, and conservative labor, with a preponderance of members drawn from the interlocking directorates of large transnational corporations. The brainchild of Carter Administration National Security Advisor and former Columbia University Professor Zbignew Brzezinski and strenuously promoted by David Rockefeller, the Trilateral Commission was an outgrowth of previous associations of 'elite'-oriented international organizations such as the New York based Council on Foreign Relations and the European Bilderberg group; however, the Trilateral Commission differs significantly from these earlier organizations in that Atlanticism was supplanted by Trilateralism with the introductory inclusion of Japanese interests into the so-called 'club of advanced nations.' Trilateralism began as a response of American hegemonic elites, to the increasing economic clout of both Japan and western Europe, and the developing nations, vis-a-vis American hegemony in the context of the economic crises of the early 1970s, combined with the inherited Atlanticist perception of the threat of Communism in general; and specifically as a response to the economic emergency originating with the abandonment of the Bretton Woods system, President Nixon's protectionist New Economic Program, and the OPEC oil embargo of 1973. However, The Trilateral Commission has not limited itself to the circumscribed role indicated by its origins; on the contrary, the mission of the Trilateral Commission has remained evolutionary and amorphous, but consistently centered around the goals of promoting an economic and political reality- growing interpenetration and interdependence, among the major industrialized countries, and indeed on a global scale. The Trilateral Commission has historically and continues to advocate, advise on, and author structures and policies of, international cooperation and economic interdependence; this interdependence and cooperation is managed by the Commission to protect and expand the regional and global interests of Transnational capital. The Trilateral Commission occupies a unique niche in the web of international organizations, by virtue of its membership and its mission. The Trilateral Commission is unlike most INGOs, in that it brings together the 'elite' leaders of various and diverse industries, corporations, governments, and other influential ventures in the developed Western capitalist states; and rather than operating as an organization of one specific interest group, industry, or cause, instead concerns itself with broad issues of import in the spheres of economic and political security for the 'Western Industrialized Democracies'. In fact, the Trilateral Commissioners make up [A]n 'international establishment'. Such an establishment which has grown in importance since 1945, consists of the intersecting domestic establishments of a range of capitalist countries. This can be said to be the ultimate source of the strength of the Commission, in that the parts interact synergistically to produce a greater whole. This whole has been enlarged since the foundation of the Commission. The membership partly reflects the twin processes, transnationalization of economy and state, since many members are associated with transnational fractions of capital and corresponding elements of the state... Furthermore, this approach has led to some criticism, from both the right and the left, of the Trilateral Commission in that an organization of influential individuals representing interests of the ruling classes of the developed capitalist nations necessarily reflects a conspiratorial style. However, Is the Trilateral Commission a conspiracy? No more than the laws of capitalism conspire to assert themselves. The Trilateral Commission is the executive advisory committee to transnational finance capital. As Richard Falk has pointed out: The vistas of the Trilateral Commission can be understood as the ideological perspective representing the transnational outlook of the multinational corporation, which seeks to subordinate territorial politics to non-territorial economic goals. Therefore, the mission of the Trilateral Commission, in its own estimation, at its most basic level, is to promote policies worldwide which limit nationalism, protectionism, and national sovereignty in favor of a structure allowing fluid mobility of transnational capital. The ideology of the Trilateral Commission concentrates on preserving the dominant position of the 'Western Industrialized Democracies' in the global economy through the advocacy of policies, coordinated between the industrialized trilateral nations, which advance capitalist interdependence and enrich the transnational and multinational corporations involved in international finance. The Trilateral Commission, as an association of the 'elites' of Western Europe, the United States and Canada, and Japan, functions in an unofficial advisory role to the IBRD (World Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the European Union (EU). The Trilateral Commission empirically exerted influence on the World Bank and the IMF in order to advance the Trilateralist ideology of capitalist managed interdependence and cooperation. In fact, the first Triangle Paper(The reports of the Trilateral Commission), entitled Towards a Renovated World Monetary System was dedicated to the revision of the IMF as it was chartered in the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement, after the post-war monetary system formally broke down in August 1971, when the United States declared that the U.S. dollar was no longer convertible into gold or indeed any other reserve asset. In fact though, [i]t was no mere coincidence that the Commission was first and foremost concerned with the international monetary system. The formation of the Commission was a direct response to the threat which the trilateralists saw in Nixon's approach to the monetary crisis of the early 1970s. And the trilateralists immediately utilized the IMF, the center of the monetary system's operation, as a vehicle for implementing trilateralist policy toward Third World nations such as Jamaica. The Commission makes it quite clear that they are talking about reform and change within the IMF itself. Furthermore, the actual influence of the Trilateral Commission on the IMF was demonstrated, not by policy and structural recommendations, but through the application of those recommendations. The chairmen of the Trilateral Commission, in the foreword to the collection of Triangle Papers, expressed both the philosophy underpinning Trilateral management of the IMF and the actual steps taken to realize the concrete goals contained within the Trilateral proposals. [I]t has often been possible to achieve a broad consensus among members... This consensus was possible because of some convictions shared by all members -- particularly the conviction that the cooperation of all three regions is essential to assure the smooth management of interdependence; cooperation based not on coercion and arm-twisting but on mutuality of interest, and indeed on the longer-term interests of mankind. The trilateral countries bear a particular responsibility in this context. Their resources and power give them a special role in global politics... It is with this philosophy that the reports and recommendations reprinted in this volume should be read. Some of the suggestions contained in these reports have meanwhile become reality. The seventh report... recommended that a 'Third Window' be established by the World Bank which would annually provide $3 billion in additional concessional lending to developing countries... and it appears the trilateral report played a role in gaining acceptance for this idea... The first report... recommended the coordinated and joint sale of official gold holdings into private markets, with 'capital gains' to be used for development assistance... the proposal was regarded as 'quixotic' at the time, but it is being partially realized in the current IMF sale of a portion of its gold... That governments and international organizations have reacted positively to suggestions by the Trilateral Commission conveyed to them through our members is one indication of the value which our work has had so far. The policies of the OECD conform to Trilateral Commission dictated strategies. The Trilateral Commission exists, to a certain degree, in order to fuse the potentially divergent policy alternatives faced by an international organization into a coherent, mutually acceptable position; this is usually accomplished through back-channel networking and informal negotiation prior to official proceedings in order to circumvent the frequently difficult consensus-building procedures of international organizations like the OECD: [A]s an international organisation expands in size and the scope of its agenda widens, agreement among the parties involved becomes increasingly difficult. In the case of the Trilateral cooperation and coordination of positions in order to maintain the international public goods of open trade and a stable international monetary system, moving from the 'big seven' of the summits to the OECD (more than twenty nations) adds successively diminishing amounts to the benefits (utility) received by each member, and leads to progressively less cooperation. This argument is based on the application of game theory, where it is assumed that the numbers of votes a country holds in an international organization determines its power to affect outcomes (decisions). What this argument fails to take account of however, is the effect of coordination of positions, and the importance of agenda-setting procedures which may occur informally, outside of the public decision-making forums. This may have the effect of creating a power bloc of countries with relatively congruent interests and concepts of a particular issue, thus enlarging their collective potential. If this latter point is acknowledged, there is a strong incentive for the 'Trilateral' countries to cooperate if they are able to identify a collective interest in doing so. From this viewpoint, informal organisations such as the Trilateral Commission may be necessary for coordination of positions vis-a-vis other groupings... Thus the interests of states, expressed in terms of their policy preferences, may only rarely coincide. However, transnational coalitions of interest can influence states to adopt coordinated positions. Therefore, the Trilateral Commission functions to set the agenda and coordinate interests within the OECD, in order to avoid the otherwise inevitable clashes of states and special interests. The evolution of the European Union reflects the Trilateral Commission influenced ideology of the ruling elites of Western Europe. As an introduction, the genesis of both the Trilateral Commission and the European Community are attributed to the Atlantic ideology of the Bilderberg group: At the governmental level, the OEEC, formed under the United States Economic Cooperation Act of 2 April 1948, and its successor, the OECD, became official counterparts, these, of course, are only elite bodies in a vast series of international governmental, political, culture and economic interactions and exchanges which have formed the substance of relations between the Atlantic countries. Nonetheless, Bilderberg is credited in Alden Hatch's biography of Bernhard as the birthplace of the European Community, as well as generally serving to maintain alliance cohesion during the difficult years of the 1950s and 1960s when the Atlantic Alliance was in the process of formation, considerable achievements by any standards. Furthermore, since European membership in the Trilateral Commission is restricted to nationals of countries either already participating, or soon to join, in the European Union both Trilateral interest and influence in the EU can be inferred. Therefore, the forerunners of the Trilateral Commission, as well as the Commission itself, served to forward the formation of the European Union because an open regional market is favorable to transnational capital. The goals and the role of the Trilateral Commission changed in light of the decline of the Communist Bloc, and the growth of international cooperation, integration, and interdependence. The Trilateral Commission constantly redefines its goals and missions to the changing realities of global economics and politics. The Trilateral Commission's adaptability in the application of its overall principles for transnational capitalist development is demonstrated in the Commission's response to the decline of the Communist Bloc, in that the Commission perceptively recommended increased cooperation between the East and West, for the sake of integrating the Communist countries into the framework of trilateral Capitalism. The collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union demanded a redefinition of objectives and function of the Trilateral Commission. The Trilateral Commission had, from its inception until the late 1970s, concentrated on security relative to the Communist bloc through increasing the economic cooperation and interdependence among the trilateral nations in order to outpace the eastern bloc in the context of the Cold War. In the 1977 Triangle Paper, Collaboration with Communist Countries in Managing Global Problems: An examination of the Options, confrontation was eschewed in favor of a desire to exploit any opportunities in relations with the Communist countries for cooperative management of certain international problems. Our concern has not been with security matters... The purpose has been to see whether there are prospects for easing the tasks of global management, in an increasingly crowded world, by drawing a Soviet and/or Chinese partner in the process... our main goal in seeking East-West cooperation is to manage the world's problems more effectively. Communist cooperation could be important in dealing with some of the problems. The Trilateral Commission was, at first tentatively, in favor of cooperation with the Communist bloc as a preliminary step towards incorporating Communist countries into the transnational capitalist system of interdependency. In the decade of the 1980s, this policy of exploring cooperative options with the Communist bloc meant that the Commission continues to review prospects for East-West relations after the Brezhnev era and appeared to conclude that the future Soviet leadership would be more outward looking, less conservative, more cosmopolitan, and more aware of the benefits of global economic interdependence. In this light it was significant that David Rockefeller led a business delegation to the Soviet Union in 1986 and thereafter the Soviet Union announced that it was to permit 49 percent foreign ownership in Soviet enterprises and joint ventures... These developments led one astute observer of the Soviet scene to suggest certain policies of the new leadership of the Soviet Union, when compared with those of their predecessors, appeared to harmonize with a number of characteristic Trilateral Commission preferences. The transition of Trilateral Commission policy towards the Communist Bloc, from one of opposition to one of cooperation, presaged the dissolution of Communist regimes, and represented the beginning of integration into the Trilateralist framework of international and transnational capitalist interdependence for the formerly Communist states of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The tremendous growth of international organizations and its attendant increased international cooperation and decreased national sovereignty called for a reevaluation of the Trilateral Commission's goals and mission. Since one of the primary goals of the Trilateral Commission is the decrease of international trade barriers, in the context of regional market structures, the European Union, the Uruguay Round of GATT , as well as the implementation of the NAFTA arrangement all fit within the Trilateral ideology, which aims to revitalize and maximize profit for transnational corporations. For instance, the 17-19 April 1983 Rome plenary session of the Trilateral Commission evaluated the progress on GATT in a speech by Paul Volcker (soon reappointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve), the Commission [also] had reports on progress of the GATT. Edmund Wellenstein argued that the GATT Ministerial Meeting of 29 November 1982 'contributed to pushing national policies in the right direction, away from short-term, short-sighted, beggar-thy-neighbor actions'. Therefore, the Trilateral Commission has largely succeeded in passing international agreements and strengthening the international organizations which administer them, in order to coordinate national policies to concentrate on pursuing the long-term goals of increased economic interdependence, and the commensurate decline in nationalist, protectionist measures which arise out of national sovereignty, economic self-interest, and political self-determination, to the detriment of transnational corporations. Therefore, with many of the original Trilateral Commission objectives either completed or rapidly coming to completion, the Trilateral Commission will redefine its role further to advance the hegemonic interests of the concentrated capital inherently represented in Trilateral Commissioners, in a global, regionally-based system much of their own devising. The transition of the Trilateral Commission from an interest group representing economic, governmental, and academic 'elites' from the trilateral regions, to a model for the management of regional and global cooperation through IGOs and INGOs in a post-national framework can be extrapolated given the stated objectives of the Trilateral Commission, within the context of an emergent new transnational, regionally based arrangement. The success of the Trilateral Commission in promoting its international agenda depended on the alliance of common interlocking interests of advanced capitalist states, in an informal, but still weighty policy planning group. The evolution of supra-national regional groupings of states fits within the Trilateral Commission doctrine of reducing national barriers, and furthermore would increase the manageability of political and economic affairs; in that regional representation to international organizations through 'elites' would foster a stable transfer of resources and capital for the transnational corporations, as well as mitigating (in the perspective of Trilateral Commissioners), through elite consensus-building, the democratic pitfalls of organizations dominated by developing countries, such as the General Assembly of the United Nations. Therefore, with the Trilateralist-aided boom in international coordination is supplemented by the inclusion of representatives of many important international organizations within the Commission, which could only increase as international coordination becomes the rule and international organizations increase their mandates further. In conclusion, the Trilateral Commission has exerted and continues to exercise a considerable measure of influence over the emergence of a global system based on the expansion of economic possibilities for transnational capital. The Commission's expansive mission has evolved on the vanguard of international coordination, cooperation, and interdependence, with a long-term view of planning perspective on the potentialities of regional organization. Bibliography Gill, Stephen. American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Sklar, Holly, ed. Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. Boston: South End Press, 1980. Stubbs, Richard and Underhill, Geoffrey R.D. Political Economy and the Changing Global Order. London: Macmillan, 1994. Trilateral Commission. Trilateral Commission Task Force Reports 1-7: the Triangle Papers. New York: New York University Press, 1977. Trilateral Commission. Trilateral Commission Task Force Reports 9-14: the Triangle Papers. New York: New York University Press, 1978.