The Trilateral Commission is a nongovernmental international organization aimed at fostering closer cooperation between Japan, Western Europe and North America. It was founded in July 1973, principally by the American banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller, an internationalist who sought to address the challenges posed by the growing economic and political interdependence between the U.S. and its allies in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The leadership of the organization has since focused on returning to "our roots as a group of countries sharing common values and a commitment to the rule of law, open economies and societies, and democratic principles".
The Trilateral Commission is headed by an executive committee and three regional chairs representing Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region, with headquarters in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo, respectively. Meetings are held annually at locations that rotate among the three regions; regional and national meetings are held throughout the year. Most gatherings focus on discussing reports and debating strategy to meet the commission's aims.
The Trilateral Commission represents influential commercial and political interests. As of 2021, there were roughly 400 members, including leading figures in politics, business, media, and academia. Each country within the three regions is assigned a quota of members reflecting its relative political and economic strength.
History
Founding The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Japan, North American nations (the U.S. and Canada), and Western European nations to foster substantive political and economic dialogue across the world. The idea of the commission was developed in the early 1970s, a time of considerable discord among the United States and its allies in Western Europe, Japan, and Canada. To quote its founding declaration: "Growing interdependence is a fact of life of the contemporary world. It transcends and influences national systems... While it is important to develop greater cooperation among all the countries of the world, Japan, Western Europe, and North America, in view of their great weight in the world economy and their massive relations with one another, bear a special responsibility for developing effective cooperation, both in their own interests and in those of the rest of the world." "To be effective in meeting common problems, Japan, Western Europe, and North America will have to consult and cooperate more closely, on the basis of equality, to develop and carry out coordinated policies on matters affecting their common interests... refrain from unilateral actions incompatible with their interdependence and from actions detrimental to other regions... [and] take advantage of existing international and regional organizations and further enhance their role." "The Commission hopes to play a creative role as a channel of free exchange of opinions with other countries and regions. Further progress of the developing countries and greater improvement of East-West relations will be a major concern." Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Rockefeller advisor who was a specialist on international affairs (and later President Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor from 1977 to 1981), left Columbia University to organize the group, along with:“The Trilateral Commission (North America) Records, 1972-2001“. DIMES: The Online Collection and Catalog of Rockefeller Archive Center Edwin Reischauer, professor at Harvard University and United States Ambassador to Japan, 19611966 George S. Franklin, executive director of the Council on Foreign Relations 1953–1971Historical Roster of Directors and Officers, Council on Foreign RelationsDavid Stout (March 7, 1996), "George S. Franklin Jr., 82, Foreign Policy Expert" obit, The New York Times: "From 1945 to 1971, he worked for the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, serving as executive director from 1953 to 1971. He served on the group's board for another decade." Gerard C. Smith, SALT I negotiator and its first North American chairman Henry D. Owen, foreign policy studies director at the Brookings InstitutionGeorge S. Franklin Jr., 82, Foreign Policy Expert David Stout. New York Times. March 7, 1996. Retrieved May 12, 2016 Max Kohnstamm, European Policy Centre Robert R. Bowie, the Foreign Policy Association and director of the Harvard Center for International Affairs Marshall Hornblower, former partner at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering Tadashi Yamamoto, Japan Center for International Exchange William Scranton, former governor of Pennsylvania
The organization's records are stored at the Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Meetings The Trilateral Commission initiated its biannual meetings in October 1973 in Tokyo, Japan. In May 1976 the first plenary meeting of all of the commission's regional groups took place in Kyoto, Japan. Since the ninth meeting in 1978, plenary meetings have taken place annually. Besides annual plenary meetings, regional meetings have also taken place in each of the Asia Pacific Group, the European Group and the North American Group. Since its founding, the discussion group has produced an official journal, Trialogue.
Membership
Membership is divided into numbers proportionate to each of the think tank's three regional areas. North America is represented by 120 members: 20 Canadian, 13 Mexican and 87 American. The European group has reached its limit of 170 members from almost every country on the continent; the ceilings for individual countries are 20 for Germany, 18 for France, Italy and the United Kingdom, 12 for Spain and 1–6 for the rest. At first Asia and Oceania were represented only by Japan, but in 2000 the Japanese group of 85 members became the Pacific Asia group, comprising 117 members: 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, seven Australian and New Zealand citizens, and 15 members from the ASEAN nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand). The Pacific Asia group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The commission now claims "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.
The Trilateral Commission's bylaws apparently deny membership to public officials. It draws its members from politics, business, and academia, and has three chairpersons, one from each region. The current chairs are former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Joseph S. Nye, Jr., former head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet, and Yasuchika Hasegawa, chair of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company.
Leadership As of September 2021Membership September 2021 . Trilateral Commission. NamePositionJean-Claude Trichet European ChairmanMeghan O'Sullivan North American ChairmanAkihiko Tanaka Asia Pacific ChairmanAlexandra Papalexopoulou European Deputy ChairmanHerminio Blanco Mendoza North American Deputy ChairmanBarry Desker Asia Pacific Deputy Chairman Carl Bildt European Deputy ChairmanJeffrey Simpson North American Deputy ChairmanJin Roy Ryu Asia Pacific Deputy ChairmanDavid Rockefeller (deceased) FounderPeter Sutherland (deceased) Honorary European ChairmanGeorges Berthoin (deceased) European Honorary ChairmanPaul Volcker (deceased) North American Honorary ChairmanYasuchika Hasegawa Asia Pacific Honorary ChairmanPaolo Magri European DirectorRichard Fontaine North American DirectorHideko Katsumata Asia Pacific Director
Notable members Graham Allison, Director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University Catherine Bertini, Professor, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Antony Blinken, U.S. Secretary of State 2021–2025, son of Donald Mayer Blinken, stepson of Samuel Pisar Michael R. Bloomberg, founder/CEO of Bloomberg L.P., mayor of New York City 2002–2013, namesake of largest U.S. school of public health at Johns Hopkins(September 2021), Membership List , Trilateral Commission(Oct. 6, 2014), "Former NYC mayor bestowed honor by Queen", CBS News: "Bloomberg was made 'an Honorary Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire' . . . Previous recipients of honorary knighthoods include . . . Bill Gates and actress-activist Angelina Jolie."Robert Frank, (May 26, 2009), "Billionaires Try to Shrink World's Population, Report Says", The Wall Street Journal: "The New York meeting of billionaires Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, David Rockefeller, Eli Broad, George Soros, Ted Turner, Oprah, Michael Bloomberg and others was . . . a friendly chat . . . . 'Taking their cue from Gates they agreed that overpopulation was a priority' . . . "Intelligencer Dossier (July 22, 2019), "Jeffrey Epstein's High Society Contacts", New York magazine: "Michael Bloomberg . . . found in Epstein's black book."Reuters (Sep 08, 2014) "Harvard receives record $350M gift for public health school", New York Daily News: "The largest cumulative donation to any U.S. university . . . is $1.1 billion . . . from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg . . . to his alma mater Johns Hopkins University, including its now-eponymous [Bloomberg] School of Public Health."Dana Vigue (Sep 8, 2020), "Experts predicted a coronavirus pandemic years ago. Now it's playing out before our eyes", CNN: "In 2017, a team of experts at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security published a scenario as part of a training exercise that they believed could happen in the not-so-distant future. The SPARS Pandemic Scenario" , Chief Executive Officer, Korian Robert R. Bowie, Director of Policy Planning 1953–1957, Foreign Policy Association, co-founder with Henry Kissinger of Harvard Center for International Affairs 1958, Counselor of the State Department 1966–1968, CFR, CIA Chief National Intelligence Officer 1977–1979“Who's Who on the Trilateral Commission”. Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1980. (pp. 90-122). Lael Brainard, Chairman of the U.S. National Economic Council; member of U.S. Federal Reserve's Board of Governors; former Under Secretary U.S. Treasury Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media Nicola Brewer, British diplomat, British High Commissioner to South Africa, DCMG Esther Brimmer, executive director/CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Atlantic Council board; former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs"Board of Directors", The Atlantic Council Mark Brzezinski, president and CEO of Brzezinski Strategies LLC, son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, and U.S. Ambassador to Sweden 2011–2015 Zbigniew Brzezinski, U.S. National Security Advisor in Carter administration Steve Bunnell, partner in O'Melveny & Myers LLP, former General Counsel at DHS R. Nicholas Burns, U.S. Ambassador to China since 2021, professor and board member of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, director of the Aspen Strategy Group, senior counselor at The Cohen Group, board member of Entegris Inc., CFR member, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Fulbright scholar at Queen Mary University of London 2020, vice chair of the American Ditchley Foundation, senior advisor at Chatham House, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs 2005–2008, Atlantic Council board"Nicholas Burns" bio, The Aspen Institute George H. W. Bush, President of the United States 1989–1993, Vice President of the United States 1981-1989 Richard Cannings (British Columbia politician) Canadian Member of Parliament Ash Carter, director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, U.S. Secretary of Defense 2015–2017, CFR board, Aspen Strategy Group, Atlantic Council honorary director"Board of Directors", Council on Foreign Relations Jimmy Carter, President of the United States 1977–1981