|Headquarters||Washington, DC (main meeting place); Paris; Tokyo|
|Key people||Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (North American chairman)
Yasuchika Hasegawa (Pacific Asian chairman)
Jean-Claude Trichet (European chairman)
|Members||More than 390|
The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973, to foster closer cooperation among North America, Western Europe, and Japan.
||This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. (January 2013)|
||The neutrality of this section is disputed. (January 2013)|
Sensing a profound discord among the nations of North America, Europe and Japan, the Trilateral Commission was founded to foster substantive political and economic dialogue across the world. To quote its founding declaration:
- "Growing interdependence is a fact of life of the contemporary world. It transcends and influences national systems...While it is important to develop greater cooperation among all the countries of the world, Japan, Western Europe, and North America, in view of their great weight in the world economy and their massive relations with one another, bear a special responsibility for developing effective cooperation, both in their own interests and in those of the rest of the world."
- "To be effective in meeting common problems, Japan, Western Europe, and North America will have to consult and cooperate more closely, on the basis of equality, to develop and carry out coordinated policies on matters affecting their common interests...refrain from unilateral actions incompatible with their interdependence and from actions detrimental to other regions... [and] take advantage of existing international and regional organizations and further enhance their role."
- "The Commission hopes to play a creative role as a channel of free exchange of opinions with other countries and regions. Further progress of the developing countries and greater improvement of East-West relations will be a major concern."
- Henry D. Owen (a Foreign Policy Studies Director with the Brookings Institution)
- George S. Franklin
- Robert R. Bowie (of the Foreign Policy Association and Director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs)
- Gerard C. Smith (Salt I negotiator, Rockefeller in-law, and its first North American Chairman)
- Marshall Hornblower (former partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering)
- William Scranton (former Governor of Pennsylvania)
- Edwin Reischauer (a professor at Harvard) and more importantly, a United States Ambassador to Japan from 1961-1966
- Max Kohnstamm (European Policy Centre)
- Tadashi Yamamoto (Japan Center for International Exchange)
The Trilateral Commission initiated its biannual meetings schedule in October 1973 in Tokyo. In May 1976, the first plenary meeting of all of the Commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto. It was through these early meetings that the group effected its most profound influence, the integration of Japan into the global political conversation. Before these exchanges, the country was much more isolated on the international stage. Since its founding, the discussion group has produced an official journal called Trialogue.
Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of the think tank's three regional areas. The North American continent is represented by 120 members (20 Canadian, 13 Mexican and 87 U.S. citizens). The European group has reached its limit of 170 members from almost every country on the continent; the ceilings for individual countries are 20 for Germany, 18 for France, Italy and the United Kingdom, 12 for Spain and 1–6 for the rest. At first, Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan. However, in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members expanded itself, becoming the Pacific Asia group, composed of 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Currently, the Trilateral Commission claims "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.
While Trilateral Commission bylaws exclude persons holding public office from membership, the think tank draws its participants from political, business, and academic worlds. The group is chaired by three individuals, one from each of the regions represented. The current chairmen are former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Joseph S. Nye, Jr.,former head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet and Yasuchika Hasegawa.
From the left 
On the left, linguist Noam Chomsky argues that a report issued by the Commission called The Crisis of Democracy which proposes solutions for the "excess of democracy" in the 1960s, embodies "the ideology of the liberal wing of the state capitalist ruling elite". Chomsky also argues that the group had an undue influence in the administration of Jimmy Carter.
From the right 
On the right, a number of prominent thinkers and politicians have criticized the Trilateral Commission as encroaching on national sovereignty. In his book With No Apologies, former conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater lambasted the discussion group by suggesting it was "a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power: political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical...[in] the creation of a worldwide economic power superior to the political governments of the nation-states involved."
Discussion over Trilateral Political Agenda 
Others such as Noam Chomsky have described the Trilateral Commission's goals in less glowing terms: "essentially liberal internationalists from Europe, Japan and the United States, the liberal wing of the intellectual elite. That’s where Jimmy Carter’s whole government came from. [...] [The Trilateral Commission] was concerned with trying to induce what they called ‘more moderation in democracy’ – turn people back to passivity and obedience so they don’t put so many constraints on state power and so on. In particular they were worried about young people. They were concerned about the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young (that’s their phrase), meaning schools, universities, church and so on – they’re not doing their job, [the young are] not being sufficiently indoctrinated. They’re too free to pursue their own initiatives and concerns and you’ve got to control them better"
While the Trilateral Commission is only one of many similar think tanks on the right and left, many notable conspiracy theorists believe the organization to be a central plotter of a world government or synarchy. As documented by journalist Jonathan Kay, 9/11 conspiracy theorist Luke Rudkowski gained notoriety in April 2007 by interrupting a lecture by former Trilateral Commission director Zbigniew Brzezinski and accusing the organization and a few others of having orchestrated the attacks of September 11th to initiate a new world order. Conservative and right-wing groups such as the John Birch Society and right wing conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones also regularly tout this idea.
Conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer alluded to the conspiracy theories when he was asked in 2012 who makes up the "Republican establishment":
See also 
- Bilderberg Group
- Internationalism (politics)
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Rockefeller family
- report The Crisis of Democracy
- "David Rockefeller". Trilateral Commission. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
- "The Trilateral Commission FAQ". The Trilateral Commission. 2011. Retrieved 2011-07-17.
- "Tadashi Yamamoto, pioneer of international exchange, dies at 76". Asahi Shimbun. 2012-04-16. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
- "Answer to a written question - Incompatibility between the holding of a Community decision-making office and membership of the Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission - E-1846/2003". European Parliament. August 6, 2003. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
- "Trilateral Commission Membership". October 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-12.
- "The Carter Administration: Myth and Reality", Noam Chomsky
- Goldwater, Barry; coauthored with Stephen Shadegg (1980). With No Apologies. Berkley. p. 299. ISBN 0-425-04663-X.
- Chomsky, Noam; Noam Chomsky (24). "Work, Learning and Freedom" (in English). New Left Project. Retrieved 3 January 2013. "I think it’s the opposite: the social system is taking on a form in which finding out what you want to do is less and less of an option because your life is too structured, organised, controlled and disciplined. The US had the first real mass education (much ahead of Europe in that respect) but if you look back at the system in the late 19th century it was largely designed to turn independent farmers into disciplined factory workers, and a good deal of education maintains that form. And sometimes it’s quite explicit – so if you’ve never read it you might want to have a look at a book called The Crisis of Democracy – a publication of the trilateral commission, who were essentially liberal internationalists from Europe, Japan and the United States, the liberal wing of the intellectual elite. That’s where Jimmy Carter’s whole government came from. The book was expressing the concern of liberal intellectuals over what happened in the 60s. Well what happened in the 60s is that it was too democratic, there was a lot of popular activism, young people trying things out, experimentation – it’s called ‘the time of troubles’. The ‘troubles’ are that it civilised the country: that’s where you get civil rights, the women’s movement, environmental concerns, opposition to aggression. And it’s a much more civilised country as a result but that caused a lot of concern because people were getting out of control. People are supposed to be passive and apathetic and doing what they’re told by the responsible people who are in control. That’s elite ideology across the political spectrum – from liberals to Leninists, it’s essentially the same ideology: people are too stupid and ignorant to do things by themselves so for their own benefit we have to control them. And that very dominant ideology was breaking down in the 60s. And this commission that put together this book was concerned with trying to induce what they called ‘more moderation in democracy’ – turn people back to passivity and obedience so they don’t put so many constraints on state power and so on. In particular they were worried about young people. They were concerned about the institutions responsible for the indoctrination of the young (that’s their phrase), meaning schools, universities, church and so on – they’re not doing their job, [the young are] not being sufficiently indoctrinated. They’re too free to pursue their own initiatives and concerns and you’ve got to control them better." More than one of
- Kay, Jonathan (2011). Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. New York, NY: Harpers. pp. 200–201. ISBN 978-1-55468-630-8.
- Barry, Dan (June 25, 2009). "Holding Firm Against Plots by Evildoers". The New York Times.
- "Paul Watson Discusses Trilateral Commission wants War with Iran on The Alex Jones Show". Retrieved 2011-11-007.
- "Krauthammer’s Take". Special Report with Bret Baier. Retrieved January 26, 2012.
Further reading 
- Brzezinski, Zbigniew (October 1970). "America and Europe". Foreign Affairs 49 (1): 11–30. doi:10.2307/20037815. (Includes Brzezinski's proposal for the establishment of a body like the Trilateral Commission.)
- Brzezinski, Zbigniew (1970). Between two ages; America's role in the technetronic era. New York: Viking Press. OCLC 88066.
- Crozier, Michel; Huntington, Samuel; Watanuki, Joji (1975). The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1365-3.
- Gill, Stephen (1991). American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission. Cambridge Studies in International Relations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-42433-X. OCLC 246854587.
- Kay, Jonathan (17 May 2011). Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground. New York: Harpers. ISBN 0-06-200481-6.
- Rockefeller, David (1980). Memoirs. New York: Random House
- Sklar (ed.), Holly (17 November 2011). Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. Boston: South End Press. ISBN 10: 0896081036 / 0-89608-103-6 Check
- Official website
- Current Membership
- Is the Trilateral Commission the secret organization that runs the world? (Fact check against conspiracy theories from The Straight Dope, 1987)