Trilateral Commission

A Rockefeller Cartel?

By William P. Litynski

Origins of the Trilateral Commission

American bankers David Rockefeller (left) and George W. Ball were founding members of the Trilateral Commission in 1973.(Photo: George W. Ball Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University)

The Trilateral Commission Tokyo Meeting ’73 in 1973

American capitalist David Rockefeller (left), Chairman of the board of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City, visits Chinese communist Chou Enlai (right), Foreign Minister of Communist China, in Peking, Communist China in 1973. David Rockefeller established the Trilateral Commission in 1973. The United States maintained diplomatic relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan (Nationalist China) in 1973.

“One is impressed immediately by the sense of national harmony.... There is a very real and pervasive dedication to Chairman Mao and Maoist principles. Whatever the price of the Chinese Revolution, it has obviously succeeded not only in producing more efficient and dedicated administration, but also in fostering high morale and community purpose. General social and economic progress is no less impressive.... The enormous social advances of China have benefited greatly from the singleness of ideology and purpose. ... The social experiment in China under Chairman Mao's leadership is one of the most important and successful in history.”– David Rockefeller, in an article in the New York Times on August 10, 1973

David Rockefeller (left) and Akio Morita, Chairman of the board of Sony Corporation, were original members of the Trilateral Commission in 1973. (Photo: http://www.akiomorita.net/en/interview/)

Prime Minister of Japan Noboru Takeshita welcomes the 1988 Trilateral Commission plenary participants in Tokyo, Japan in April 1988. American banker David Rockefeller (front row, 2nd from left), former Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank, is flanked by Georges Berthoin of France (front row, 3rd from left) and Isamu Yamashita of Japan (front row, left).(Photo: http://www.jcie.or.jp/jcie/chrono3.html)

Trilateral Commission Founder David Rockefeller (front row center) appears with (front row from left) Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Jean-Claude Trichet (former President of the European Central Bank), and Minoru Makihara, and (back row) Paul A. Volcker (former Chairman of the Federal Reserve) and Michael Fuchs at the Trilateral Commission’s 40th Anniversary meeting in Berlin, Germany on March 16, 2013. (Photo: Trilateral Commission)

Soviet Commissar Mikhail Gorbachev (3rd left) appears with Trilateral Commission members during a meeting in Moscow, Soviet Union on January 18, 1989. From left to right: David Rockefeller, Georges Berthoin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Henry Kissinger, Yasuhiro Nakasone, and Yoshio Okawara.(Source: http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/Commemorating_1989.pdf)

“For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents such as my encounter with Castro to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”– David Rockefeller, 2002, from his book Memoirs, p. 405

“We have found we can deal with just about any kind of government, provided they are orderly and responsible.”– David Rockefeller, February 1982, during his trip to Zimbabwe

Original Members of the Trilateral Commission

Cyrus R. VanceU.S. Secretary of State

(1977-1980);Secretary of the Army

(1962-1964)

Harold BrownU.S. Secretary of Defense

(1977-1981);Secretary of the Air Force

(1965-1969)

David RockefellerChairman of the board of Chase Manhattan Bank

(1969-1981)

George W. BallUnder U.S. Secretary of

State (1961-1966);Senior Partner of Lehman

Brothers (1969-1982)

Zbigniew BrzezinskiNational Security Advisor

(1977-1981);Director of Research

Institute for International Change (1962-1977)

Sir Frank Kenyon RobertsBritish Ambassador to the

Soviet Union (1960-1962);

British Ambassador to West Germany

(1963-1968)

Lord (Eric) Roll of IpsdenChairman, S.G. Warburg & Co., Ltd. (1974-1983); director of the Bank of England (1968-1977)

Giovanni AgnelliChairman of Fiat

[Italian car company](1966-1996)

Gerhard SchröderMinister of Foreign Affairs (1961-1966) and Defence Minister (1966-1969) of

West Germany;former Member of the

Nazi Party

Otto Wolff von Amerongen

German businessmen;Chairman and CEO of

Otto Wolff GmbH

Kiichi Miyazawa宮澤 喜一

Prime Minister of Japan (1991-1993);

Finance Minister of Japan (1986-1988, 1998-2001)

Eiji Toyoda豊田 英二

Chairman (1982-1992) and President (1967-1982) of Toyota Motor

Corporation

Akio Morita盛田 昭夫

Chairman (1976-1995) and CEO (1976-1989) of

SONY Corporation

Kenichiro Komai駒井 健一郎

Chairman of the board (1971-1977) and

President (1961-1971) of Hitachi, Ltd.

Masaharu Matsushita松下 正治

Chairman (1977-c.1990) and President (1961-1977) of Matsushita

Electric Company, Ltd.

Quotes and Excerpts about the Trilateral Commission

“The implication in Governor Rockefeller’s presentation have become concrete proposals advanced by David Rockefeller’s newest international cabal, the Trilateral Commission. Whereas the Council on Foreign Relations is distinctly national in membership, the Trilateral Commission is international. Representation is allocated equally to Western Europe, Japan, and the United States. It is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. Zbigniew Brzezinski and David Rockefeller screened and selected every individual who was invited to participate in shaping and administering the proposed new world order… In his book Between Two Ages, published in 1970 by Viking Press, Brzezinski calls for an international community of Japan, Western Europe, and the United States to supervise and guide the underdeveloped nations of the world. He declares, “National sovereignty is no longer a viable concept.” He calls for a rewriting of the American Constitution. He condemns the existing federal system of U.S. sovereign states as no longer necessary or adequate. In his prospectus describing the Trilateral Commission David Rockefeller said he intended to bring the best brains of the world together to bear on the problems of the future.” – U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, from his book With No Apologies, p. 280

“Freedom – spiritual, political, economic – is denied any importance in the Trilateral construction of the next century. The final paragraph of that Trilateral Commission report is an admission of the commission’s true aims: “Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, in fostering economic redevelopment and alleviating world poverty will improve the chances of a smooth and peaceful evolution of the global system.” What the Trilaterals 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.” – U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater, from his book With No Apologies, p. 285

“In the course of 1974 I was told that Jimmy Carter had declared his candidacy for the Presidency and that he needed advice. I decided, therefore, to approach him, largely because I felt that he would spread the Trilateral Commission’s concept of closer and more cooperative relations between the United States on the one hand and Europe and Japan on the other. I did not then think of him as a candidate with whom I would become closely identified. I wrote him a note making an offer of help, and received in return a handwritten note, dated December 31, 1974: “To Zbigniew Brzezinski – Thank you for your offer to help me with analyses of foreign affairs issues. I look forward to meeting with you for a personal discussion, and hope that in the meantime you would let me have any memos or articles which would be instructive to me. The Trilateral Com experience has been a wonderful opportunity for me, and I have used it perhaps even more than you could know. Your friend, Jimmy.””– Power and Principle by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, p.5

“The Carter Administration assumed office determined to improve relations with Western Europe and Japan. Enhanced political and economic cooperation with these key partners had been the first objective listed in the foreign policy goals document I had prepared for President Carter. Moreover, all the key foreign policy decision makers of the Carter Administration had previously served in the Trilateral Commission, a private body dedicated to the view that U.S. relations with Western Europe and Japan provide the strategic hard core for both global stability and progress.”– Power and Principle by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, p. 36

“The new President’s specific views on foreign affairs – going beyond his desire for a foreign policy governed by humane and moral concerns – had been formed during his time with the Trilateral Commission. Contrary to the current myth, the Trilateral Commission is not a conspiracy designed to dominate the world but genuinely strives to engage Americans, Western Europeans, and Japanese in a common endeavor to shape a more cooperative world. Many of its sessions and papers are dedicated to such themes as aid for the developing countries, arrangements for the fairer exploitation of the oceans, or programs to delay or halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Carter absorbed many of these themes and he actively participated in some of the discussion.” – Power and Principle by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, p. 49

“No organization with which I have played a founding role has attracted as much public scrutiny and attention as the Trilateral Commission. Pat Robertson has insisted that Trilateral is trying to create a world government and claims that it springs “from the depth of something evil.” My son Richard, when he was a student at Harvard in the 1970s, told me his friends assumed that Trilateral was part of a “nefarious conspiracy.” On the lighter side, Garry Trudeau, author of the popular "Doonesbury" comic strip, delights in lampooning Trilateral. In one classic example a slightly paunchy businessman announces to a bartender that he is in the mood to celebrate because he has "just been accepted for membership in the Trilateral Commission." The bartender has never heard of the group, so the businessman explains “it is a powerful coterie of statesmen and international financiers which periodically meets in secret to shape the destiny of the western world.” His job, the businessman relates, is to set “world zinc prices.” Trilateral, like Bilderberg, is a much more benign organization than the conspiracy theorists have depicted. It is a broadly based effort to bridge national differences and. in this case, invite the Japanese into the international community. The idea for an organization including representatives from North America, Europe, and Japan – the three centers of democratic capitalism – resulted from my realization in the early 1970s that power relationships in the world had fundamentally changed. The United States, although still dominant, had declined relatively in terms of its economic power as both Western Europe and Japan recovered from the devastation of World War II and entered a period of dramatic economic growth and expansion. As a result the comity that characterized relationships among these regions for more than two decades had deteriorated alarmingly, and I believed something needed to be done. I spoke about this in March 1972 before Chase investment forums in Montreal. London, Brussels, and Paris, calling for an “international commission for peace and prosperity” composed of private citizens drawn from the NATO countries and Japan to examine “such vital fields as international trade and investment: environmental problems: control of crime and drugs; population control; and assistance to developing nations.” I thought it essential to include the Japanese for a number of reasons. First of all, Japan had become a global economic power, and its high-quality products, especially automobiles and electronics, had made inroads into markets everywhere. Japanese export success, however, had produced a hostile reaction in the United States and Europe, and there was a strong perception that Japan was a “free rider” on the international trading system, aggressively exploiting opportunities abroad while only grudgingly opening their domestic market. Japan's economic prowess combined with its curious reluctance to engage seriously in international dialogue made it imperative to include them in the process I had in mind. Zbigniew Brzezinski, then teaching at Columbia University, was a Bilderberg guest that year, and we spoke about my idea on the flight to Belgium for the meeting. I had been urging the Steering Committee to invite Japanese participants for several years, and at our session that April, I was again politely but firmly told no. Zbig considered this rebuff further proof that my idea was well founded and urged me to pursue it. I arranged a follow-up meeting with Zbig. Robert Bowie of the Center for International Studies at Harvard, Henry Owen of the Brookings Institution, and McGeorge Bundy of the Ford Foundation, who all heartily endorsed my proposal to form a trilateral organization. I then convened a larger group, including five Europeans and four Japanese, for a meeting at my country home in the summer of 1972. Among the Japanese were Saburo Okita, who later became minister of foreign affairs, and Kiichi Miyazawa, who would serve as minister of foreign affairs, minister of finance, and prime minister. After a lengthy discussion we determined to set up the new organization. Zbig agreed to serve as director, and Benjy Franklin, my college roommate and colleague at the Council on Foreign Relations, agreed to help with organizational matters. Trilateral was established on a trial basis; at the end of three years we would review its activities and accomplishments and decide whether it should be continued. Each region had its own executive committee and secretariat. At our first executive committee meeting in Tokyo in October 1973, two task forces reported on political and monetary relations among the three regions, and we published their findings in an effort to influence the behavior of our respective governments. For the second executive committee meeting in Brussels in June 1974 – just after the first OPEC “oil shock” and calls for a “new international economic order” – we concentrated on the energy crisis and relations with developing countries. We cast our nets widely in terms of membership and recruited labor union leaders, corporate CEOs, prominent Democrats and Republicans, as well as distinguished academics, university presidents, and the heads of not-for-profits involved overseas. We assembled what we believed were the best minds in America. The Europeans and Japanese assembled delegations of comparable distinction. The inclusion among that first group of an obscure Democratic governor of Georgia – James Earl Carter – had an unintended consequence. A week after Trilateral’s first executive committee meeting in Washington in December 1975, Governor Carter announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. I have to confess that at the time I thought he had little chance of success. Much to my amazement, however, he not only won the Democratic nomination but defeated President Gerald Ford in the November election. Carter's campaign was subtly anti-Washington and antiestablishment, and he pledged to bring both new faces and new ideas into government. There was a good deal of surprise, then, when he chose fifteen members of Trilateral, many of whom had served in previous administrations, for his team, including Vice President Walter Mondale. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal, and Zbigniew Brzezinski as national security advisor. In his 1975 autobiography, Why Not the Best?, Carter wrote that “membership on this commission has provided me with a splendid learning opportunity, and many of the other members have helped me in the study of foreign affairs.” Predictably, I was accused of trying to take control of Carter's foreign policy. As economic conditions worsened in the late 1970s and the United States suffered a series of foreign policy reverses culminating in the Iranian hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Trilateral attracted a great deal of unfavorable attention. In the 1980 presidential primary campaign, for instance, one of Ronald Reagan’s supporters ran an advertisement that stated, “The people who brought you Jimmy Carter now want you to vote for George Bush,” and highlighted the membership of both in Trilateral. I am not sure how many votes were changed by this ad, but such is the nature of politics in a democratic society. I should note. However, that President Reagan ultimately came to understand Trilateral’s value and invited the entire membership to a reception at the White House in April l984. In December 1999, on the trip back from the ceremonies marking the official return of the Panama Canal, President Carter and I, who were both members of the U.S. delegation, spoke about Trilateral. He again generously credited the commission with broadening his understanding of international issues and their impact on the United States. And that, I would argue, is really the point. Trilateral has never been a sinister force; rather, it has provided an invaluable forum for dialogue among the leadership of three pivotal regions of the world. 1 am pleased that Trilateral remains a vigorous and effective collaborator on the world scene.”– Memoirs by David Rockefeller, p. 415-418

“The reassertion of the American commitment to the alliance echoed the mainstream views held for almost two generations by the very Eastern Establishment against which Carter leveled his carefully programmed populist attacks. Even the trilateral note was hardly new. In his 1953 Godkin lectures at Harvard, John J. McCloy had predicted the need for a genuine partnership with both Germany and Japan once they had recovered. But since 1972 “trilateralism” had become a fashionable concept among what its members liked to call the "foreign policy community." In that year David Rockefeller, worried that the liberal internationalists of the Wall Street and Washington law firms who had managed U.S. foreign policy under Republican and Democratic administrations alike had been discredited by Vietnam and replaced by dangerous Nixonian nationalists like Connally, put up the seed money and supplied his personal prestige for the Trilateral Commission, which was launched the following year. This private organization, composed of the "best brains" of the industrial world, as its executive director regularly explained to reporters, was a collection of leading bankers, senior corporate executives, former high government officials, and well-connected academics. The U.S. contingent represented an acceptable list of the rich, influential, and famous such as any enterprising Democratic or Republic fundraiser would like to assemble. The European and Japanese representatives seemed almost as impressive. Into this company Jimmy Carter, about to finish his term as governor, was inducted in the summer of 1973. "We were a little light on people from the South," George Franklin, an old Rockefeller hand who organized the group, later explained. Hedley Donovan, the publisher of Time, had come up with his name. The Trilateral Commission was barely mentioned in the 1976 campaign. When the Carter cabinet was announced, a few columnists noted the coincidence that so many of them belonged to Mr. Rockefeller's new organization. By the time Jimmy Carter ran for a second term, however, the Trilateral Commission was a major campaign issue, suddenly attacked from the Far Right for being a collection of crypto-Communists and one-worlders and from the fringe Left for being a Rockefeller conspiracy to turn the Third World over to the multinational corporations. Though the view of the Left was somewhat more plausible than that of the Right, both characterizations were excessively respectful of the Trilateral Commission’s cohesiveness, influence, and drive. But neither was it just an elegant seminar. The commission was important for what it achieved, which was very little, but for its pretensions. The Trilateral Commission did not mastermind the Carter presidency as some breathless accounts of the time contended. On the contrary, it articulated the needs and goals which the administration failed to meet and gave up trying to meet. High officials like Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, and Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal were not picked for the cabinet because they were trilateralists; they were trilateralists because they were already part of the select pool of eligible national security managers. (A number of younger members of the commission, however, such as Richard Holbrooke and C. Fred Bergsten, did manage to turn their trilateral contacts into assistant secretaryships.) The commission had as its purpose nothing less modest than the creation of a transnational elite with a shared consciousness. The coordinated management of the increasingly interdependent market economies of North America, Europe, and Japan had become urgent at the very moment when internationalist leaders were becoming hard to find.”– The Alliance: America-Europe-Japan, Makers of the Postwar World by Richard J. Barnet, p. 359-360

“David Rockefeller tried out his idea of a Trilateral Commission at a Bilderberg meeting. “David thought things were falling apart,” George Franklin, an old Rockefeller associate, recalls, and many shared his concern. Bringing Japan into regular international elite discussions seemed like a good idea. “If we are going to move effectively,” Franklin put it, “the industrialized democracies must not work at cross purposes.” The commission was formed in October 1973. Columbia University professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, a Polish emigre who grew up in Canada and had impressed Rockefeller with a cascade of ideas that ran easily from orthodox Cold War liberalism of the 1950s to "world order" concerns of the 1970s, was made director. Jimmy Carter became an eager participant. Having determined to run for president in 1976, he saw the Trilateral Commission as a convenient gathering place of the very men he must impress. “The Democratic candidate in 1976,” Brzezinski predicted in an interview in late 1973, “will have to emphasize work, the family, religion, and, increasingly, patriotism if he has any desire to be elected.” On this Jimmy Carter agreed. As far as “world order” was concerned, the energetic, ambitious, but rather colorless politician was eager to learn what he could from the professor’s rapid-fire presentations. Like many members of the “foreign policy community,” Brzezinski was convinced that the Vietnam War, “the Waterloo of the elite,” was lost only because the elite lost its nerve. Kissinger, he told Los Angeles Times reporter Robert Scheer in January 1977 a few days later after settling into his office in the White House as national security adviser, was “perhaps the last spokesman for the fading elite.” Without a new elite riding a new world view, the foreign policy consensus could not be put back together again and U.S. foreign policy would remain paralyzed. Trilateralism was an effort to modernize U.S. foreign policy thinking to enable the nation to continue exercising leadership in a world where allies were no longer clients but competitors.”– The Alliance: America-Europe-Japan, Makers of the Postwar World by Richard J. Barnet, p. 362

TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1980 - Letters New York Times

To the Editor:

John Anderson's Presidential Campaign Effort

I have a suspicion approaching conviction that John Anderson’s try for the Presidency was invented by, or with the connivance of, the Trilateral Commission to cut into the Democratic vote and so secure the election of Ronald Reagan.

The Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller in 1973, is so called because it brings together top corporate and financial power, plus a supporting cast of academics, politicians and labor union heads from North America, Western Europe and Japan. David Rockefeller is its North American chairman.

An extraordinary fraction of the Carter Administration was drawn from its membership: President Carter himself, Vice President Mondale, Security Advisor Brzezinski, ex-Secretary of State Vance, ex-Secretary of Treasury Blumenthal, Secretary of Defense Brown, Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, Deputy Secretary of Energy Sawhill, Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker, Special Assistant Hedley Donovan, Counsel to the President Lloyd Cutler and a scattering of other high functionaries. (All such persons continue to be listed by the Trilateral Commission as “Former Members in Public Service.”)

Both John Anderson, the Independent candidate, and George Bush, Republican Vice Presidential candidates are or were members. Since the entire listing from the U.S. included only 92 members, 18 in "public service," the Trilateral Commission is offering an extraordinary concentration of major aspirants in the coming election, covering, as it happens, all three political constituencies.

In a sense, John Anderson represents a replay of Jimmy Carter's 1976 candidacy, Anderson and Carter were both members of the Trilateral Commission from its inception. Both became candidates out of obscurity: Jimmy Carter a peanut warehouseman and one-term Governor of Georgia; John Anderson an undistinguished Republican Representative from Illinois.

Both come forth as mavericks; Carter as the anti-Washington, anti-Establishment Populist; Anderson, a right-wing Republican with what liberal Democrats regard as a dismal voting record in the House suddenly emerging as a forthright liberal reaching out for the independent vote, the Democrats disillusioned with Carter and the single-issue voters; anti-nuke, pro-abortion, anti-draft, pro-E.R.A., pro-gun control - that last an almost sure formula in the past for losing elections.

But if I am right, Anderson was not designed to win this election, but to cut into the Democratic vote.

Running initially as a candidate for the Republican nomination, he displayed his new political image and made his name recognizable. Then we were treated to his agonizing decision whether to run as an Independent. No agony. As a Republican candidate he had already been eliminated by Reagan. To cut into the Democratic vote, he had to run as an Independent.

His recent conference with Senator Kennedy seems to me more of the same. It says to American voters: See, I'm not only closer to the Democrats than to the Republicans, I'm like a real, authentic Democrat such as Senator Kennedy, who even agrees that we are close together on (some) issues.

What all this means, if I am right, is that David Rockefeller and his Trilateral Commission, having had four years of Jimmy Carter, have decided that they can do even better with Reagan and their man Bush. Henry Kissinger, political adviser to the Rockefeller family and member of the executive committee of the Trilateral Commission, hailed Reagan at the Republican convention as “the trustee of our hopes.”

I think that John Anderson is the instrument designed by the Trilateral Commission to assure Reagan's election.

GEORGE WALD

Woods Hole, Mass., Aug. 14, 1980

The writer is emeritus professor of Biology at Harvard and co-recipient of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Medicine.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20 1980 - Letters New York Times

To the Editor:

I never ceased to be amazed at those few among us who spot a conspiracy under every rock, a cabal in every corner.

Surprisingly, the latest to join the conspiracy theorists is Professor George Wald, a Nobel laureate, who postulates in an Aug. 19 letter that "John Anderson's try for the Presidency was invented by, or with the connivance of, the Trilateral Commission to cut into the Democratic vote..."

Professor Wald, alas is not alone in his suspicions.

To some, the Trilateral Commission is a sinister plot by Eastern Establishment businessmen who will do almost anything - including going into cahoots with the Kremlin - for the sake of financial gain. The fact that many former members, including President Carter, are now members of the Administration is hailed as proof of how devilishly well the conspiracy works.

As founder of the Trilateral Commission and its current North American chairman, I am usually singled out as the “cabalist-in-chief”.

One recent tirade had me orchestrating a plot “...to reduce New York's population to approximately four million and siphon off the surplus population into slave labor camps...” The same publication asserts that I'm already responsible for a fascist scheme in Latin America that “...led to shifts in global weather patterns, marked by droughts and severe winters in the United States.”

Originally, this sort of nonsensical defamation was easy to dismiss. It came from the extreme fringes of the left and the right, and I suppose being called a Communist and a fascist at the same time puts me somewhere near the center of the political spectrum where I am most comfortable anyway.

Lately though, the drum beat of inanities has grown louder, and a few overactive imaginations have attempted somehow to link the commission with the 1980 Presidential election campaign.

I thought therefore that Professor Wald and his co-conspiracy theorists might appreciate an explanation of the mysterious organization that seems to haunt their every moment.

I am afraid the reality is much less juicy than the theories.

The Trilateral Commission now has about 300 members from North America, Western Europe and Japan. About one-quarter are from the United States and include not only business people, but labor union leaders, university professors and research institute directors, congressmen and senators, media representatives and others. There are about as many Republicans and Democrats, and most regions of the nation are represented.

Among present and former U.S. members are the chairman of the Republican National Committee, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and others who surely would have difficulty hatching the same plot.

The Trilateral Commission does not take positions on issues or endorse individuals for elective or appointive office. It holds meetings that rotate from region to region and assigns task force reports that are discussed in commission sessions. Reports have dealt with different aspects of world trade, energy resources, the International Monetary System, East-West relations and more.

Is the commission secretive? Not at all. For $10 a year, anyone can subscribe to its quarterly magazine, “Trialogue,” and also receive periodic mailings of task force reports. Further, we publish a list of the source of all U.S. contributions in excess of $5.000. The only part of our proceedings that is "off the record" are discussions at commission meetings, and we keep these private to encourage uninhibited criticism and debate.

Is the commission exclusive? Yes, in that we try to select only the most able and outstanding citizens from the industrial democracies. In that context, it is gratifying and not at all surprising that many former members are now Administration officials. My point is that far from being a coterie of international conspirators with designs on covertly conquering the world, the Trilateral Commission is, in reality, a group of concerned citizens interested in identifying and clarifying problems facing the world and in fostering greater understanding a cooperation among international allies.

My apologies, Professor Wald, But, as Walter Cronkite would say, “That's the way it is.”

DAVID ROCKEFELLER

Chairman The Chase Manhattan Bank New York, Aug. 20, 1980

Summary of the Trilateral Commission(from the Trilateral Commission’s website)

About the Organization

The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Japan, Europe (European Union countries), and North

America (United States and Canada) to foster closer cooperation among these core democratic industrialized areas of the world with shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system. Originally established for three years, our work has been renewed for successive triennia (three-year periods), most recently for a triennium to be completed in 2009.

When the first triennium of the Trilateral Commission was launched in 1973, the most immediate purpose was to draw together—at a time of considerable friction among governments—the highest level unofficial group possible to look together at the key common problems facing our three areas. At a deeper level, there was a sense that the United States was no longer in such a singular leadership position as it had been in earlier post-World War II years, and that a more shared form of leadership—including Europe and Japan in particular—would be needed for the international system to navigate successfully the major challenges of the coming years.

Two strong convictions guide our thinking for the 2006-2009 triennium. First, the Trilateral Commission remains as important as ever in helping our countries fulfill their shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system and, second, its framework needs to be widened to reflect broader changes in the world. Thus, the Japan Group has become a Pacific Asian Group, and Mexican members have been added to the North American Group. The European Group continues to widen in line with the enlargement of the EU. We are also continuing in this triennium our practice of inviting a number of participants from other key areas.

The “growing interdependence” that so impressed the founders of the Trilateral Commission in the early 1970s is deepening into “globalization.” The need for shared thinking and leadership by the Trilateral countries, who (along with the principal international organizations) remain the primary anchors of the wider international system, has not diminished but, if anything, intensified. At the same time, their leadership must change to take into account the dramatic transformation of the international system. As relations with other countries become more mature—and power more diffuse—the leadership tasks of the original Trilateral countries need to be carried out with others to an increasing extent.

The members of the Trilateral Commission are about 350 distinguished leaders in business, media, academia, public service (excluding current national Cabinet Ministers), labor unions, and other non-governmental organizations from the three regions. The regional Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen, and Directors constitute the leadership of the Trilateral Commission, along with an Executive Committee including about 40 other members.

The annual meeting of Trilateral Commission members rotates among the three regions. It was held in Washington in 2008 and Brussels in 2007. The 2009 plenary will be held in Tokyo. The agendas for these meetings have addressed a wide range of issues, an indication of how broadly we see the partnership among our countries. Presentations from these meetings have been published in the Commission's ( Trialogue ) series and/or posted under Recent Activity on this web site.

The project work of the Trilateral Commission generally involves teams of authors from our three regions working together for a year or so on draft reports which are discussed in draft form in the annual meeting and then published. The authors typically consult with many others in the course of their work. The task force reports ( Triangle Papers ) to the Trilateral Commission have covered a wide range of topics.

The regional groups within the Trilateral Commission carry on some activities of their own. The European Group, with its secretariat based in Paris, has an annual weekend meeting each fall. The North American Group, with its secretariat based in Washington D.C. began North American regional meetings in 2002 and occasionally gathers with a special speaker for a dinner or luncheon event. The new Pacific Asian Group, with its secretariat based in Tokyo, began regional meetings in 2000. Each region carries on its own fund-raising to provide the financial support needed for the Trilateral Commission’s work.

http://www.trilateral.org/about.htm

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Trilateral Commission? When and why was it formed?

The Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, policy-oriented discussion group of about 350 distinguished citizens from Western Europe, North America and Pacific Asia formed to encourage mutual understanding and closer cooperation among these three regions on common problems.

The idea of the Commission was developed in the early 1970s. This was a time of considerable discord among the United States and its democratic industrialized allies in Western Europe, Japan, and Canada. There was also a sense that the international system was changing in some basic ways with rather uncertain implications. Change was most obvious in the international economy, as Western Europe and Japan gained strength and the position of the U.S. economy became less dominant. The increase in global interdependence was touching the United States in ways to which it was not accustomed.

In this setting, the founders of the Commission believed it important that cooperation among Western Europe, North America (including Canada), and Japan be sustained and strengthened not only on issues among these regions but in a global framework as well, given the weight and leadership capacity of these countries. It was hoped that a policy-oriented discussion group composed of members of high stature, but not including individuals currently holding posts in their national administrations, would help foster the habit and practice of working together among these three key regions by focused analysis of the main issues that lay ahead. The Commission was launched in mid-1973 with a three-year mandate. It was later renewed for a second triennium (1976-79), and is now in its eleventh triennium, which ends in mid-2006.

What are the goals of the Trilateral Commission?

At its first meeting, held in Tokyo in October, 1973, the Trilateral Commission’s Executive Committee issued a declaration outlining the organization’s rationale and aims, a declaration which remains relevant today:

I

1. Growing interdependence is a fact of life of the contemporary world. It transcends and influences national systems. It requires new and more intensive forms of international cooperation to realize its benefits and to counteract economic and political nationalism.

2. This interdependence, especially among Japan, Western Europe, and North America, generates new problems and frictions which endanger not only their well-being but affect adversely the other regions.

3. Although the risks of nuclear confrontation have diminished, world peace and security are still to be given a lasting basis. New problems have also emerged to heighten the vulnerability of our planet. Humanity is faced with serious risks to the global environment. At the same time shortages in world resources could breed new rivalries, and widening disparities in mankind's economic conditions are a threat to world stability and an affront to social justice.

4. 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. They share a number of problems which, if not solved, could cause difficulties for all. They must make concerted efforts to deal with the challenge of interdependence they cannot manage separately. The aim must be effective cooperation beneficial to all countries, whatever their political systems or stage of development.

II

To be effective in meeting common problems, Japan, Western Europe, and North America will have to:

1. consult and cooperate more closely, on the basis of equality, to develop and carry out coordinated policies on matters affecting their common interests;

2. refrain from unilateral actions incompatible with their interdependence and from actions detrimental to other regions;

3. take advantage of existing international and regional organizations and further enhance their role.

Trilateral cooperation will be facilitated as greater unity is achieved in Europe through the progress of the European community and as Europe and Japan develop closer relations.

III

It will be the purpose of the Trilateral Commission to generate the will to respond in common to the opportunities and challenges that we confront and to assume the responsibilities that we face.

The Commission will seek to promote among Japanese, West Europeans, and North Americans the habit of working together on problems of mutual concern, to seek to obtain a shared understanding of these complex problems, and to devise and disseminate proposals of general benefit.

The cooperation we seek involves a sustained process of consultation, and mutual education, with our countries coming closer together to meet common needs. To promote such cooperation, the commission will undertake an extensive program of trilateral policy studies, and will cooperate with existing private institutions as appropriate.

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.

Who are the members of the Trilateral Commission?

For the kind of broad-based discussion the Commission’s founders hoped to encourage, it was important to draw leading citizens from many sectors of society and with a variety of political views. The list of members now totaling about 350 indicates such professional, geographic, and political diversity. Among the current U.S. members, for example, the largest group is drawn from business, banking and finance, but these individuals constitute only about half of the total. There are also labor leaders, congressmen and senators, university professors, and research institute directors. Democrats and Republicans are both well-represented. Members have been drawn from all over the United States and include women and ethnic minorities. The Commission believes this diversity is vital to a well-rounded consideration of the issues it addresses.

How are Trilateral Commission members chosen?

Membership is by invitation. In the United States group, for example, the Executive Committee decides on invitations on the basis of recommendations made by members and staff. A rotation policy ensures some openings each year.

What about the individual roles of David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter, President George H. W. Bush, Vice President Cheney, Paul Volcker, and Alan Greenspan?

David Rockefeller was the principal founder of the Commission. He has served on the Executive Committee from the beginning in mid-1973 and was North American Chairman from mid-1977 through November, 1991. Zbigniew Brzezinski played an important role in the formation of the Commission. He was its first Director (1973-76) and its major intellectual dynamo in those years. Dr. Brzezinski rejoined the Commission in 1981 and now serves on the Executive Committee. President Carter was a member from mid-1973 until his election, when he left in accordance with Commission rules barring individuals holding administration posts. President Bush was invited to join in early 1977 after he left the government. He resigned in late 1978, two years before he became Vice President. Richard B. Cheney was a Commission member from 1997 until he became a candidate for the Vice Presidency and resigned in 2000. Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan each departed from membership, in accordance with Commission rules, upon becoming Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Mr. Volcker was invited back to the Commission in September 1987, after stepping down as Chairman of the Fed, and he served as North American Chairman from 1991 to 2001.

What is the main activity of the Trilateral Commission?

There are two main aspects of Commission activity. First are plenary meetings of the Commission. These are three-day conferences which now take place once a year, rotating from region to region. A published report on each plenary is available, covering key aspects of the meeting.

Task Force reports constitute the second main aspect of Commission activity. Generally three experts - one from Pacific Asia, one from North America, and one from Western Europe - are chosen to work together for roughly a year in preparing a joint report on a particular issue. The diversity of the issues covered is indicated by the titles of recent publications: East Asia and the International System (2001); The New Central Asia: In Search of Stability (2000); 21st Century Strategies of the Trilateral Countries: In Concert or Conflict? (1999); and Advancing Common Purposes in the Broad Middle East (1998).

The authors consult with others inside and outside the Trilateral regions, and a full draft of their report is discussed at one of the annual meetings of the Commission. The three authors are free to present their own views in these reports, and their views do not purport to represent those of all Commission members. A few reports that were particularly controversial within the Commission have been published with a summary of discussion in the back. Fifty-five reports have been published so far.

Each region also holds annual regional meetings to consider topics of concern within the region and their significance to global relationships. In addition, each region holds some events on its own.

How is the Trilateral Commission directed?

The Chairman and Deputy Chairman for each of the three regions provide the collective leadership of the Commission. They are responsible for basic program planning such as selecting task force topics and planning meetings and other events.

An Executive Committee, made up of members from all three regions, meets once a year to discuss possible task force topics, to review the work of the Commission, and to give general guidance to the Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen.

The day-to-day work of the Commission is carried out by small staffs in Washington DC, Tokyo, and Paris, each under the supervision of a regional Director.

Is the Trilateral Commission a government agency? Part of the United Nations? Connected to the Council on Foreign Relations or the Brookings Institution?

The Trilateral Commission is an independent organization. It is not part of the U.S. or any other government, nor the United Nations. It has no formal ties with the Council on Foreign Relations or Brookings Institution or any such organization, although many Commission members are associated with organizations like these.

Is the Trilateral Commission secret?

No. Right from the beginning, the Commission’s membership list and informational materials on its aims and activities have been available to all free of charge. Each of the Commission’s task force reports is publicly available, as is the publication providing extensive coverage of each annual plenary meeting. Information on the Commission’s funding and major contributors is also available. The agenda and a list of participants for each plenary meeting are regularly distributed. Press conferences are held during the meetings, and draft task force reports are customarily made available to the press. Only the discussions at the meetings are kept “off-the-record,” to encourage frankness and maximize the learning process for members.

Why, then, have many people not known of the Trilateral Commission?

The Commission has been covered in major newspapers and news magazines including, among others, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Sun-Times, and Los

Angeles Times. These and other articles apparently have not created a sustained awareness of the Commission’s work among most people. With plenary meetings taking place only once a year, and with task force reports adopting a time-frame that is not compatible with most daily news reports, such an awareness is not easy to create. The Commission welcomes coverage of its activities.

Public understanding and discussion of international issues are considered to be of great importance by the Trilateral Commission. The Commission realizes, however, that it is only part of a much larger nongovernmental effort aimed at encouraging international cooperation and understanding. Other organizations concentrate on other aspects of the total task for example, scholarly exchanges or citizen education in world affairs.

Is the Trilateral Commission trying to establish a world government?

No. The Trilateral Commission encourages international cooperation on many issues, but does not promote a world government. No Commission report proposes that national governments be dissolved and a world government be created. Individuals or organizations who believe the Trilateral Commission supports or intends to form a world government are misinformed.

Is the Trilateral Commission a “club” for the benefit of the rich countries only?

No. Although the Commission membership does not include individuals from the developing areas, their needs are considered important in the broad framework of global peace and prosperity. To this end, individuals from developing countries are regularly invited to participate in Commission meetings. In addition, a variety of reports to the Commission over the years have focused on problems of developing countries, including The New Central Asia: In Search of Stability (2000); Advancing Common Purposes in the Broad Middle East (1998); Engaging Russia (1995); An Emerging China in a World of Interdependence (1994); Beyond Interdependence: The Meshing of the World's Economy and the Earth's Ecology (1991); and Latin America at a Crossroads (1990). Furthermore, speakers from developing countries have addressed most plenary meetings since 1980.

To have added individuals from all the developing areas as well as citizens from the industrialized democracies in the Commission’s membership would have made the Commission too large for effective discussion. We recognize that constructive solutions to global problems require agreement in a much broader framework. In this global effort, the industrial democratic regions remain a vital core, with particular weight and responsibility for wider progress.

Is the Trilateral Commission a conspiracy to control the U.S. government?

No. President Carter was a member of the Trilateral Commission before he became President, and many members of his Administration were members of the Commission before taking on their government jobs. Every Administration since then has included former Commission members. But this fact did not then, nor does it now, indicate control of the U.S. government by the Commission.

First, members must resign from the Commission upon accepting an Administration post.

Second, as noted earlier, the Commission has a very diverse membership in terms of both geography and occupation. It is also fairly evenly divided in the United States between Republicans and Democrats, and it does not take an institutional position on particular issues. Aside from its general emphasis on consultation and cooperation with Western Europe and Japan, there is no “Commission line” on policy questions. Task Force reports do not prescribe day-to-day actions; and the Commission does not lobby for particular legislation or for candidates.

Third, the men and women who join the Commission are of outstanding ability, receive their information from many sources, and think for themselves. For many members, participation in Commission activities does not extend beyond attendance at the annual plenary meeting. The Commission, through these conferences and its publications, does hope to provide an additional educational experience for its members, while simultaneously contributing to the general policy debate in this country and elsewhere, but it cannot and does not attempt to do more than this.

Some individuals believe that the Trilateral Commission somehow arranged President Carter’s election in 1976. This is a far-fetched misconception. The Commission is entirely non-partisan and has never supported any candidate. In the case of President Carter, one need only recall that he received his party’s nomination after a very demanding primary process. This was clearly not some kind of “backroom deal” that could be arranged by a few persons. David Rockefeller is usually cited as the person responsible for “making Carter President,” yet he voted for and supported President Ford.

In the case of later presidential campaigns, many members undoubtedly supported particular Republican, Democrat, or Independent candidates, but the Commission was not, and by its nature could not be, committed to any candidate.

How did it happen that President Carter chose 17 of his top officials from the ranks of the Trilateral Commission?

Because President Carter was not particularly well-known in the field of foreign policy, how he was selected for Commission membership may be of interest. In the spring of 1973, the founders of the Commission were meeting in Washington to think about future members. They had drawn up a slate which satisfied their requirements of ability, occupational diversity, and geographical mix except that the South was under-represented. It was decided, therefore, to consult with some individuals in Atlanta about prospective members from the South. These individuals recommended Governor Carter, partly because they felt he had been a very able governor, and partly because he had taken considerable interest in Japanese and West European trade offices for the State of Georgia. He was invited to join the Commission, and he accepted.

When he was elected President, Mr. Carter naturally turned to some of the people in the Trilateral Commission whose abilities and personalities he had come to know to ask them to join his new Administration. Most, if not all, of these men and women would have been natural choices for any Democratic President, whether or not they were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Who Finances the Trilateral Commission?

The largest shares of the funds received in the United States since the inception of the Commission have come from a variety of foundations and an even wider range of corporations. A list of all contributors in the United States who have given over $5000 is available by e-mail. The Trilateral Commission receives no financial support from the United States government. Fundraising in Japan and Western Europe (and Canada) is handled independently. Since foundations are not as common in Japan and Western Europe, a larger portion of the funding in those regions comes from corporations.

What then has been the impact of the Commission?

The Commission’s impact can be judged in at least three different ways:

One way is in terms of the general concepts advanced by the Commission. Recognition of the importance of cooperation among the main industrialized democratic countries is indicated most clearly by the holding of annual plenary meetings, a practice which began a few years after the Commission’s creation and which has continued ever since. Recognition of the growing international role of Japan, another key aspect of the “Trilateral” idea, has made considerable progress, inside as well as outside Japan. Recognition of the expanding identity of Europe (with the enlargement of the European Union) and of the development of a Pacific Asian consciousness has been reflected in the Commission’s expanded membership. The progress of these general ideas is primarily attributable to developments beyond the Commission, of course, but the Commission’s work has contributed to the general atmosphere in which they have gained increased acceptance.

The Commission’s impact may also be judged on the basis of the personal ties established among members. Here the ties to Japan have been particularly important, since the Japanese had not had much experience of this nature prior to the Commission’s founding. Ties between Japan and Western Europe had been particularly weak. Today's expanded European and Pacific Asian membership has continued and broadened ties between the three Trilateral regions.

A third way to look at the Commission’s impact is by tracing the progress of particular task force proposals. Most Trilateral task force reports have sought to provide perspective and direction rather than to specify concrete “next steps.”

* * *

“From a Japanese point of view, I believe the Trilateral Commission has played an immensely useful role in bringing us more closely into the international concert. First, and most important to us, Japan ... was involved since the very beginning in the exploratory stages which led to the Commission's creation. This was probably the first time Japan had been associated as an equal partner in a discussion group of such importance and magnitude. Second, unlike the United States where businessmen and lawyers often find their way on loan to the government, private citizens in Japan seldom have a chance to see and think about world affairs from a general and broader point of view. Their joining the Trilateral Commission has enabled them to do just that .... (D)iscussions within the Commission do affect the thinking of our governments and in some cases—although indirectly—their policy decisions. In this sense, I believe that the Commission has made a difference—even if a number of crucial problems, trade relations for example, still exist among the trilateral countries.”

Kiichi Miyazawa, former Japanese Finance Minister and Foreign Minister and founding member and former Japanese Chairman of the Trilateral Commission

http://www.trilateral.org/moreinfo/faqs.htm

Prominent members of the Trilateral Commission meet with United States President Gerald Ford at the White House in Washington, D.C. in 1974. To President Ford’s immediate left is David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Former U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Secretary of Defense Elliot L. Richardson is seated third person to right of President Ford.

Excerpts from the San Francisco Meeting of the Trilateral Commission in March 1987

Excerpts from the San Francisco Meeting of the Trilateral Commission in March 1987

Excerpts from the San Francisco Meeting of the Trilateral Commission in March 1987

Henry Kissinger (center) and David Rockefeller (right) meet with Foreign Minister of Japan Sunao Sonoda at the 10th Trialogue Meeting in Tokyo, Japan in April 1979. (Source: Trilateral Commission Trialogue Report)

Illustrated History of the Trilateral Commission

Count Otto Graf Lambsdorff (left) appears with European Chairman Peter Sutherland (second from left), German Group Chairman Michael Fuchs (second from right) and German politician (later Chancellor) Angela Merkel (far right) at the October 2004 European Meeting in the German Bundestag in Berlin, Germany. Otto Graf Lambsdorff, Peter Sutherland, and Michael Fuchs were members of the Trilateral Commission in October 2004.(Photo: http://www.trilateral.org/MEMBSHIP/MEMBTXTS/OGL/OGL_In_Memoriam.pdf)

Trilateral Commission member David Rockefeller stands beside Trilateral Commission members Richard Holbrooke (left), Senator Jay Rockefeller (center and right) and Henry Kissinger (right) at an Asia Society party.

Peter Sutherland (left) and Michael Fuchs (center) presents Otto Graf Lambsdorff with an album commemorating his many years of service to the Commission on the occasion of his 80th birthday in Berlin, Germany in March 2007. All three men are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: http://www.trilateral.org/MEMBSHIP/MEMBTXTS/OGL/OGL_In_Memoriam.pdf)

Trilateral Commission member Henry Owen (left), a special U.S. representative, meets with Prime Minister of Japan Masayoshi Ohira in 1979. (Associated Press Photo) http://www.brettonwoods.org/node/397

Soviet Commissar Mikhail Gorbachev (3rd left) appears with Trilateral Commission members during a meeting in Moscow, Soviet Union on January 18, 1989. From left to right: David Rockefeller, Georges Berthoin, Mikhail Gorbachev, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Henry Kissinger, Yasuhiro Nakasone, and Yoshio Okawara.(Source: http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/Commemorating_1989.pdf)

(Source: http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/Commemorating_1989.pdf)

Trilateral Commission members (from left to right) Peter D. Sutherland, Sadako Ogata, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Paul A. Volcker, and David Rockefeller stand in front of a camera at a Trilateral Commission party on December 1, 1998.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger chats (left) with Giovanni Agnelli, the honorary chairman of Fiat, before the 1998 Soccer World Cup quarter final match between France and Italy at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France on July 3, 1998. Henry Kissinger and Giovanni Agnelli attended the 1998 Bilderberg Meetings held at Turnberry Hotel in Ayrshire, Scotland in May 1998. Henry Kissinger and Giovanni Agnelli were members of the Trilateral Commission. (Gerard Julien/AFP/Getty Images)

The three chairmen of the Trilateral Commission Georges Berthoin of France (left), David Rockefeller of the United States of America (center), and Isamu Yamashita of Japan (right) laugh during a press conference before the opening of the annual conference on April 21, 1990. (Kevin Larkin/AFP/Getty Images)

Victor K. Fung (left), Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, and Peter Sutherland, Chairman of Goldman Sachs International and BP Amoco, shake hands at the start of the 2nd Joint plenary meeting of the EU-Hong Kong Business Cooperation in London on October 27, 1999. Victor K. Fung and Peter D. Sutherland are members of the Trilateral Commission.(Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)

A World Policy Conference (WPC) 2012 conference is held in Cannes, France on December 10, 2012. From left to right: Dominique Moïsi, Special Advisor at Ifri; Han Sung-joo, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea; Jim Hoagland, Contributing Editor to The Washington Post; Donald Johnston, Founding Partner, Heenan Blaikie; former Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); Serguei Karaganov, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy; Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development, Moscow; Wang Jisi, Dean of the School of International Studies, Peking University, and director of the Center for International and Strategic Studies, Peking University. Han Sung-joo and Wang Jisi are members of the Trilateral Commission; Dominique Moïsi is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldpolicyconference/8422591293/in/photostream)

A World Policy Conference (WPC) 2012 conference is held in Cannes, France on December 10, 2012. From left to right: Dominique Moïsi, Special Advisor at Ifri; Han Sung-joo, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea; Jim Hoagland, Contributing Editor to The Washington Post; Donald Johnston, Founding Partner, Heenan Blaikie; former Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); Serguei Karaganov, Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy; Igor Yurgens, Chairman of the Management Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development, Moscow; Wang Jisi, Dean of the School of International Studies, Peking University, and director of the Center for International and Strategic Studies, Peking University. Han Sung-joo and Wang Jisi are members of the Trilateral Commission; Dominique Moïsi is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldpolicyconference/8422642509/in/photostream)

Jacob A. Frenkel (left), former Governor of the Bank of Israel (Israel’s central bank), greets former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (right) at the Economic Club of New York in New York City on April 10, 2013. Frenkel and Kissinger are members of the Trilateral Commission in April 2013. (Photo: Economic Club of New York)

Paul A. Volcker (right) displays a gift while Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, smiles during a banquet held at the Economic Club of New York in New York City on May 29, 2013. Paul A. Volcker and Roger W. Ferguson Jr. were members of the Trilateral Commission in 2012. (Photo: Economic Club of New York)

Current and former presidents of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York pose for a group portrait on May 1, 2014. From left to right: William J. McDonough, William C. Dudley, Paul A. Volcker, E. Gerald Corrigan, and Timothy F. Geithner. All five men are or were members of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. Everyone except for William C. Dudley attended the Bilderberg Meetings conference in the past. (Photo: Federal Reserve)

Federal Reserve bankers pose for a group portrait at the Federal Reserve headquarters in Washington, D.C. on June 16, 2014. From left to right: Jerome H. Powell, Federal Reserve Chairman Dr. Janet Yellen, Dr. Lael Brainard, and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Dr. Stanley Fischer. All four individuals are members of the Council on Foreign Relations, a private organization in New York City. Dr. Lael Brainard and Dr. Stanley Fischer were members of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: Federal Reserve)

Left to right: Ernesto Zedillo (former President of Mexico), Jacob Frenkel (former Governor of the Bank of Israel), Stanley Fischer (Governor of the Bank of Israel), and Paul Adolph Volcker (former Chairman of the Federal Reserve) participate in the 59th Plenary Session of the Group of Thirty (G-30) that was held on May 24-26, 2008. All four men are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Group of Thirty)

Left to right: Kurt Campbell, Anne-Marie Slaughter (Dean of Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University), James B. Steinberg, and Francis Fukuyama participate in a Center for a New American Security meeting on June 27, 2007. Everyone in this photo was a member of the Trilateral Commission in 2007. Everyone except for Francis Fukuyama is currently serving in the U.S. Department of State in the Obama administration. James B. Steinberg is the current Deputy Secretary of State, Anne-Marie Slaughter is the current State Department Director of Policy Planning Staff, and Kurt Campbell is the current Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. (Photo: Center for a New American Security)

Republican Party vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin meets with former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the Columbia Mission on Park Avenue in New York City on September 23, 2008. Henry Kissinger is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (L) greets former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger at a dinner after the first meeting of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington, D.C. on July 28, 2009. (Reuters)

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

President Barack Obama drops by National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones' meeting with former national security advisors in the Situation Room of the White House on March 24, 2010. Seated at the table, from left to right are: Brent Scowcroft, Robert "Bud" McFarlane, Colin Powell (former U.S. Secretary of State), Dennis Ross (Senior National Security Council Director for the central region), Sandy Berger, Frank Carlucci (former U.S. Secretary of Defense and former Chairman of the Carlyle Group), and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Everyone seated at the table in the Situation Room except for Barack Obama is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Zbigniew Brzezinski was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/4609005318/

Prime Minister of Italy Mario Monti (left) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. on February 9, 2012. Mario Monti is a longtime member of the Trilateral Commission and a regular Bilderberg Meetings participant.(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

U.S. President Barack Obama (right) shakes hands with Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (center) as British Foreign Secretary William Hague (left) looks on at the start of the International Security Assistance Force meeting on Afghanistan during the 2012 NATO Summit at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago on May 21, 2012. Carl Bildt is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Getty Images)

President-elect Barack Obama shares a laugh with Paul Volcker (left), former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, as he speaks at a news conference in Chicago on November 26, 2008. Barack Obama appointed Paul Volcker to serve as the new chairman of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Paul Volcker is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Associated Press)

U.S. President Barack Obama (C) meets with former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz (L) and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (R) in the Oval Office of the White House on May 19, 2009. Henry Kissinger is a member of the Trilateral Commission and a regular Bilderberg Meetings participant. Henry Kissinger and George Shultz are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Reuters)

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (left) shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama after he took the Oath of Office as the 44th President of the United States, during the inauguration ceremony in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2009. Dianne Feinstein is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Reuters)

U.S. President Barack Obama (left) shakes hands with international banker Jamie Dimon, the Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, during a meeting of business leaders at a hotel in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 2009. Jamie Dimon is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Reuters)

Democratic Party presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois) meets with his foreign policy panel of former U.S. government officials at a hotel in Washington D.C. on June 18, 2008. From left to right are former Clinton administration advisor Greg Craig, former Clinton deputy national security advisor James Steinberg, former national security advisor Anthony Lake, former U.S. Senator David Boren (D-Oklahoma), former U.S. Congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Indiana), Senator Obama, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry, Obama’s senior foreign policy adviser Susan E. Rice, former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Indiana) and former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig. Steinberg, Rice, and Albright are (or were) members of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken. Hamilton and Roemer are former members of the 9/11 Commission. (Reuters)

Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (left) acknowledges the crowd as National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial thanks him before the audience at the National Urban League in Orlando, Florida on August 2, 2008. Marc Morial is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo)

Democratic Party presidential contender U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (center) shakes hands with U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) as he steps off the plane in Charleston, West Virginia on March 20, 2008. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller is a member of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. (AP Photo)

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (C) is joined by designated CIA Director, former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta (L), and designated National Intelligence Director, retired U.S. Navy Admiral Dennis Blair, at a news conference at his transition office in Washington, D.C. on January 9, 2009. Dennis Blair was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Reuters)

Democratic Party presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama greets former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (left) during a meeting with some of his top economic advisors at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. on July 28, 2008. Lawrence Summers is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Trilateral Commission. Lawrence Summers attended the Bilderberg Meetings in Chantilly, Virginia in June 2008. (Getty Images)

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (left, D-California) meets with Director of National Intelligence-designate Adm. Dennis Blair (U.S. Navy, retired) in her office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on January 12, 2009. Dianne Feinstein and Dennis Blair are members of the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo)

Henry Kissinger appears with (clockwise from upper left) Sarah Palin, John McCain, President George W. Bush, and Hillary Clinton. John McCain and Hillary Clinton were presidential candidates in 2008. Sarah Palin was a vice presidential candidate in 2008.

GEORGE W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

President George W. Bush (left) waves as the former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger smiles for the camera during a meeting at the Economic Club of New York in New York City on March 14, 2008. (Reuters)

President George W. Bush makes remarks on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) at the White House on June 23, 2005. Democratic and Republican officials from previous administrations stand with the President in support of the agreement. From left to right: former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Nixon and Ford); former U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills (G.H.W. Bush); President George W. Bush; former U.S. Secretary of Commerce William Daley (Clinton); and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. Henry Kissinger and Carla A. Hills were members of the Trilateral Commission in 2005. (Ron Sachs/CNP/Corbis)

Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass (seated on the far right) watches President George W. Bush deliver a speech to members of the Council on Foreign Relations at the Harold Pratt House in New York City on December 7, 2005. Richard N. Haass was a member of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken in 2005. (White House photo by Paul Morse)

President George W. Bush, backed by U.S. Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), looks up while signing the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. on May 14, 2002. The bill provides for additional new investigators and inspectors for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, requires foreign visitors to carry passports and visas that are tamper-resistant, and gives border patrol agents a pay increase. Dianne Feinstein was a member of the Trilateral Commission in 2002. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

President George W. Bush greets Marc Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, after delivering his remarks in Detroit, Michigan on Friday, July 23, 2004. Marc Morial is a member of the Trilateral Commission.(White House photo by Eric Draper) http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/07/images/20040723-8_urban3-515h.html

U.S. Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice (L) thanks U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California) for her introduction at her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on January 18, 2005. Dianne Feinstein and Condoleezza Rice are members of the Trilateral Commission. Condoleezza Rice joined the Trilateral Commission in 2009. (© LARRY DOWNING/Reuters/Corbis)

CLINTON ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

President Bill Clinton looks at former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski during a meeting with the Committee for American Leadership in Bosnia at the White House on December 6, 1995. Zbigniew Brzezinski was a member of the Trilatearl Commission at the time this photo was taken in 1995. Bill Clinton is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.(Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images)

President Bill Clinton speaks in support of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Washington, D.C. on November 1, 1993. Individuals seated behind Bill Clinton are (from left to right): former U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, former President Jimmy Carter, Vice President Al Gore, and Andrew Young, the former U.S. Representative to the United Nations. The individual on the far right is unidentified. Henry Kissinger and Carla A. Hills were members of the Trilateral Commission in 1993. (Photo by Diana Walker/Liaison)

Arkansas Governor and Democratic Party presidential candidate Bill Clinton (center) meets with his advisers in Little Rock, Arkansas on July 9, 1992. From left to right: Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Warren Christopher, Bill Clinton, Senator Al Gore, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Vernon Jordan and Warren Christopher were members of the Trilateral Commission. (Ira Wyman/Sygma/Corbis)

President Bill Clinton greets Trilateral Commission members Senator Jay Rockefeller (left) and Richard Holbrooke.

U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein meets with President Bill Clinton in the Oval Office. This photo was published on U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s website.

President Bill Clinton and his Cabinet members pose for a group portrait at the White House in January 1993. Standing, from left: U.S. Representative to the United Nations Madeleine Albright, Mack McLarty, Mickey Kantor, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, Leon Panetta, Carol Browner, Lee Brown. (Seated, from bottom left) Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Mike Espy, Robert Reich, Henry Cisneros, Hazel O'Leary, Richard Riley, Jesse Brown, Federico Pena, Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, U.S. Secretary of Defense Les Aspin, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher, and President Bill Clinton. Bruce Babbitt, Warren Christopher, Henry Cisneros, Bill Clinton, and Donna Shalala were members of the Trilateral Commission prior to serving in the Clinton administration.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

From left to right: George W. Landau, President George H.W. Bush, David Rockefeller (North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission), U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, and National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft meet at the U.S. State Department in May 1990 to discuss the proposed NAFTA agreement.

Trilateral Commission member Henry Kissinger (left) talks to President George H.W. Bush (center) and Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

Japan’s Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (left, podium) and President George Bush speak at the White House Rose Garden in July 1992. The four individuals standing in the background are (left to right): U.S. Ambassador to Japan Michael Armacost, Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady, unidentified, and U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills. Michael Armacost, Carla A. Hills, Kiichi Miyazawa, and George Bush are (or were) members of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: Dirck Halstead, Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (left, Democrat-Washington) sits next to U.S. President George H.W. Bush during a meeting with the congressional leadership at the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 6, 1989. Thomas S. Foley was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Trilateral Commission. Thomas S. Foley was also a member of the Bilderberg Group. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

REAGAN ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

President Ronald Reagan appears with (left to right) Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, and Secretary of the Treasury James A. Baker III in the Press Room at the White House on June 2, 1987 as he announces the nomination of Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Board. Alan Greenspan was a member of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken in 1987. Paul Volcker is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

David Rockefeller smiles as President Ronald Reagan receives a medal after Reagan delivered a speech to the Council of the Americas on May 12, 1987. David Rockefeller was the North American Chairman of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken. David Rockefeller is a member of the Trilateral Commission and a regular Bilderberg Meetings participant. (Photo by Tim Clary/Bettmann/CORBIS)

President Ronald Reagan meets with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the White House residence on June 10, 1981. Henry Kissinger was a member of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken.(Photo: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

Top ranking officials from six past administrations gather at the White House to endorse President Ronald Reagan's bid to sell AWACS radar planes to Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C. on October 5, 1981. From left to right: former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, National Security Advisor Richard Allen, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, President Ronald Reagan, former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Harold Brown are members of the Trilateral Commission.(Don Rypka/Bettmann/CORBIS)

President Ronald Reagan is flanked by former Trilateral Commission members Caspar Weinberger (left) and Frank Carlucci (right) on November 5, 1987. Caspar Weinberger was the Secretary of Defense, and Frank Carlucci was the National Security Advisor at the time this photo was taken. (Photo: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library)

CARTER ADMINISTRATION & THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION

President Jimmy Carter and prominent dignitaries stand together at the White House on September 29, 1979. Front row, left to right: Lloyd N. Cutler, George W. Ball, Averell Harriman, Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, President Jimmy Carter, Dean Rusk, C. Douglas Dillon, and McGeorge Bundy. Second row, left to right: John McCloy, Vice President Walter F. Mondale, unidentified, Brent Scowcroft, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, and Hedley Donovan. Third row, left to right: National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, unidentified, James R. Schlesinger, unidentified, unidentified, unidentified.

Lloyd N. Cutler, George W. Ball, Henry Kissinger, and Hedley Donovan were members of the Trilateral Commission in 1979. Cyrus Vance, Jimmy Carter, Walter F. Mondale, Harold Brown, and Zbigniew Brzezinski were members of the Trilateral Commission prior to serving in the Carter administration.

(Photo: George W. Ball Papers, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University)

David Rockefeller (left), chairman of the board of Chase Manhattan Bank, greets U.S. President Jimmy Carter at the White House in Washington, D.C. in April 1980 during the ongoing Iran Hostage Crisis.

President Jimmy Carter listens to Trilateral Commission member Henry Kissinger at the White House on August 15, 1977.

Trilateral Commission members Walter Mondale (left, vice presidential candidate) and Jimmy Carter (right, presidential candidate) celebrate after winning the presidential election in November 1976.

President Jimmy Carter walks with (left to right) National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and Vice President Walter F. Mondale during a meeting at Camp David on Iran crisis on November 1, 1979. Carter, Brzezinski, Brown, Vance, and Mondale are (or were) members of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo by Diana Walker/Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance talks to President Jimmy Carter.

President Jimmy Carter (left) talks to National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (center) and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at the White House in August 1977. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION & NORTH AMERICAN-WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS

Former President of Mexico Ernesto Zedillo (left) stands beside David Rockefeller at an Americas Society party in New York City on October 9, 2003. Ernesto Zedillo and David Rockefeller are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Trilateral Commission members participate in the initialing ceremony of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in San Antonio, Texas on October 7, 1992. Standing from left to right: Mexican President Carlos Salinas, American President George Bush, and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Seated from left to right: Jaime Serra Puche, U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, and Michael Wilson. Everyone in this photo except Salinas and Wilson is or was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum)

Former U.S. Trade Representative Carla A. Hills (right) smiles as Ernesto Zedillo, the President of Mexico, speaks to members of the Council on Foreign Relations on December 9, 1996. Carla A. Hills and Ernesto Zedillo are members of the Trilateral Commission. This photo was published in the 1997 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report.

Lorenzo Zambrano (center) watches David Rockefeller shake hands with William Rhodes (left) at a party. David Rockefeller and Lorenzo Zambrano are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: Harvard University President Lawrence Summers (left) meets with Ernesto Zedillo, the former President of Mexico, at Harvard University on March 13, 2002. Lawrence Summers and Ernesto Zedillo were members of the Trilateral Commission in 2002.

Right photo: Trilateral Commission member Carla A. Hills stands beside Mexico’s President Vicente Fox.

David Rockefeller (left), the North American chairman of the Trilateral Commission, appears with Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, former President of Mexico (1982-1988), at the Harold Pratt House in New York City on May 4, 1989. This photo was published in the 1989 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report.

Argentine President Nestor Kirchner meets with Trilateral Commission member David Rockefeller at the Harold Pratt House in New York City. This photo appears in the 2004 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report.

Trilateral Commission member David Rockefeller (left), Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chretien, and international banker John C. Whitehead appear at a party.

THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION & EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Former President Bill Clinton greets Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt at Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden on May 15, 2001. Carl Bildt is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Bill Clinton was a member of the Trilateral Commission.

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi (left) listens to Mario Monti (right), EU Competition Commissioner, at a meeting in Strasbourg, France on July 3, 2001. Romano Prodi is a former Prime Minister of Italy. Mario Monti is a member of the Trilateral Commission; Romano Prodi was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Damien Meyer/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Munich, Germany on February 4, 2012.[State Department photo/ Public Domain] http://www.flickr.com/photos/statephotos/6830102155/

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears with Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in the Treaty Room at the State Department in Washington, D.C. on May 5, 2009. Carl Bildt is a member of the Trilateral Commission and a regular Bilderberg Meetings participant.(State Department photo by Michael Gross)

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana (L) welcomes Spain’s Defense Minister Carme Chacon on November 17, 2009 before the second working session of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council with EU defense ministers at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Carme Chacon is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Getty Images)

THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION & ASIAN AFFAIRS

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger greets Trilateral Commission member Kiichi Miyazawa.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller greets Japanese Foreign Minister Kiichi Miyazawa at Tokyo International Airport on April 17, 1975. Rockefeller was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations while Miyazawa is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Nelson’s brother David was a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission on that date. At center is U.S. Ambassador to Japan James D. Hodgson, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (left) meets with Taizo Nishimuro, President and CEO of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo on March 6, 2007. Paulson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Nishimuro was a member of the Trilateral Commission. Paulson is the former Chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs. Nishimuro is the former Chairman and CEO of Toshiba Corporation. (Photo by Junko Kimura/Getty Images)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi (C) attends a meeting with former prime ministers at his official residence in Tokyo on May 14, 2004. Koizumi will visit North Korea for talks with supreme leader Kim Jong Il as early as the end of next week focusing on Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang. At left is Yasuhiro Nakasone and right is Kiichi Miyazawa. The late Kiichi Miyazawa was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Kazuhiro Nogi/Pool/Reuters/Corbis)

Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers (left) shakes hands with Japan’s Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa at the Treasury Department in Washington, D.C. on April 15, 2000. Lawrence Summers is a member of the Trilateral Commission. The late Kiichi Miyazawa was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (George Bridges/AFP/Getty Images)

Japan’s Crown Princess Masako (left), holding her daughter Princess Aiko in her arm, is greeted by her father Hisashi Owada (second from right) and her mother Yumiko Owada upon her arrival at her parents' residence in Tokyo on September 4, 2003. Hisashi Owada was a member of the Trilateral Commission; Hisashi Owada is currently serving as a judge for the International Court of Justice at The Hague, Netherlands. Crown Princess Masako’s husband is Crown Prince Naruhito; Crown Prince Naruhito’s father is Emperor Akihito and his grandfather is the late Emperor Hirohito. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke (left) is greeted by Japanese Ambassador to the UN Yukio Satoh at Satoh's office near the United Nations in New York City on September 13, 1999. Richard Holbrooke and Yuko Satoh are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Henny Ray Abrams/AFP/Getty Images)

Prime Minister of Japan Takeo Fukuda (left) appears with Communist China’s leader Deng Xiaoping in Tokyo, Japan during Deng’s visit to Japan in October 1978.

Japanese Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda and American President Jimmy Carter smile for the cameras in Washington D.C. in March 1977. Fukuda and Carter were members of the Trilateral Commission.

U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale (left) and Prime Minister of Japan Takeo Fukuda (right) pose for photographers prior to start of their talks at the premier's official residence in Tokyo, Japan on January 31, 1977. Mondale and Fukuda were members of the Trilateral Commission.(© Bettmann/CORBIS)

TRILATERAL COMMISSION – MISCELLEANEOUS

Trilateral Commission member David Rockefeller accepts a gift from former Trilateral Commission member George H.W. Bush.

Left photo: International banker George Soros stands beside retired Chairman and CEO of Chase Manhattan Bank David Rockefeller. George Soros is a former member of the Trilateral Commission. David Rockefeller is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Right photo: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan listens to American International Group Chairman and Council on Foreign Relations Vice Chairman Maurice Greenberg at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting in July 2000. Maurice Greenberg was a member of the Trilateral Commission in 2000.(Photo: 2001 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Richard W. Fisher, President and Chief Executive Officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, speaks on International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City on March 3, 2010. Fisher is a member of the Federal Open Market Committee which sets interest rates as the Federal Reserve's principal monetary policy making group. Richard W. Fisher is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Reuters)

Timothy Geithner (left), President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke (right) use napkins during lunch at the Economic Club of New York in New York City on October 15, 2008. Timothy Geithner was a member of the Trilateral Commission in October 2008. (Associated Press/Mark Lennihan)

In this handout photo provided by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left), a member of the Likud Party, receives the Bank of Israel annual report from Stanley Fischer, Governor of the Bank of Israel in Jerusalem, Israel on April 19, 2009. Stanley Fischer is a member of the Trilateral Commission and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Getty Images)

Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (center), a member of the Likud Party, greets Henry Kissinger (2nd right) at the Israeli Consul General’s home in New York City on June 25, 2001. Henry Kissinger was a member of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken on June 25, 2001. (Photo: Avi Ohayon/Israeli Government Press Office (GPO))

Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (right) meets with Jacob Frenkel (left), then the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer (second from left), then the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Gaby Fishman at the Knesset on May 14, 2001. Both Jacob Frenkel and Stanley Fischer are members of the Trilateral Commission, members of the Group of Thirty (G-30), and directors of the Institute for International Economics.(Photo: Amos Ben Gershom, GPO) Note: The GPO is the Israel Government Press Office (GPO).

Stanley Fischer’s biography from the Bank of Israel

“Prof. Stanley Fischer has been Governor of the Bank of Israel since May 2005. Prior to joining the Bank of Israel, Prof. Fischer was Vice Chairman of Citigroup from February 2002 through April 2005, where he was also Head of the Public Sector Group from February 2004 to April 2005, Chairman of the Country Risk Committee, and President of Citigroup International. Prof. Fischer was the First Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, from September 1994 until the end of August 2001. Before he joined the IMF, Prof. Fischer was the Killian Professor and Head of the Department of Economics at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). From January 1988 to August 1990 he was Vice President, Development Economics and Chief Economist at the World Bank . . . Prof. Fischer is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the G-30, and the Trilateral Commission, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has served on the Boards of the Institute for International Economics, Women's World Banking and the International Crisis Group, as well as the International Advisory Board of the New Economic School, Moscow.”

Former President Bill Clinton receives an honorary degree from Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel on January 20, 2002. The man on the left is Tel Aviv University President Itamar Rabinovich, a former Ambassador to the U.S. and a member of the Trilateral Commission. Bill Clinton was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (GPO Photo)

Former Israeli army general Moshe Dayan meets Trilateral Commission member Baron Edmond de Rothschild in Tel Aviv.

CIA Director George Bush shows Gerald Ford a secret map. Brent Scowcroft (standing to the left of Bush), Dick Cheney (without glasses, his chin resting on his left fist), Henry Kissinger are studying that map. Scowcroft, Bush, Cheney, and Kissinger would later join the Trilateral Commission.

Former Central Intelligence Agency directors John Deutch, William Webster, and George Tenet (far right) are members of the Trilateral Commission. George H.W. Bush is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara (left) appears with former U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. Both men were members of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken.

Right photo: Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (left) speaks to Chairman and CEO of AIG Maurice Greenberg at a party. Both men were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Foreign leaders attend the Economic Summit in Munich, Germany in July 6-8, 1992. From left to right: Jacques Delors (President of the European Commission), Kiichi Miyazawa (Prime Minister of Japan), Brian Mulroney (Prime Minister of Canada), Francois Mitterand (President of France), Helmut Kohl (Chancellor of Germany), George H.W. Bush (President of the United States of America), John Major (Prime Minister of Great Britain), and Giuliano Amato (Prime Minister of Italy). Miyazawa, Mulroney, and Bush were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Richard Armitage (left) talks to Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle on March 25, 1986. Richard Armitage and Richard Perle are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Source: Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet by James Mann)

Left to right: Mrs. Daft, Douglas Daft (former Chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola), United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and Mrs. Nane Annan appear at a reception hosted by Mr. Daft at the Belevedere Hotel in Davos, Switzerland on January 28, 2001. Douglas Daft is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (UN Photo)

Secretary-General Kofi Annan (right) meeting with Kiichi Miyazawa, Finance Minister of Japan, at the Ministry of Finance Building in Tokyo on November 12, 1999. Kiichi Miyazawa was a member of the Trilateral Commission in 1999. (UN Photo)

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan talks with former Foreign Minister of Indonesia Ali Alatas (far left), former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern (far right) during their meeting at the headquarters of United Nations in New York City on April 5, 2005. Both Ali Alatas and Ernesto Zedillo are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Paul Wolfowitz (left), President of the World Bank, meets with Sadako Ogata, President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, in Japan on May 28, 2006. Sadako Ogata is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Paul Wolfowitz is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a former member of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Ken Katsurayama/World Bank)

Trilateral Commission bankers Paul Volcker (far left, wearing a blue shirt), Stanley Fischer (center, wearing a red necktie), and William J. McDonough (on the far right) are seen attending a private meeting.

David Rockefeller appears with his daughter Peggy Dulany at the Harold Pratt House on December 9, 1996. David Rockefeller and Peggy Dulany are members of the Council on Foreign Relations and members of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Carla A. Hills and retired Navy Admiral Dennis C. Blair are members of the Trilateral Commission. This photo appears in the 2007 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report.

John Deutch (left), former Director of Central Intelligence Agency, and former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker smile for the camera at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting on March 13, 1997. John Deutch and Paul Volcker are members of the Trilateral Commission.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski appears at a party with President of Ford Foundation McGeorge Bundy, Council on Foreign Relations President Winston Lord, and Trilateral Commission Coordinator George S. Franklin. This photo was published in the 1978 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report. Zbigniew Brzezinski and Winston Lord are members of the Trilateral Commission; George S. Franklin was a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Debate moderator Graham Allison (left) asks for a show of hands of those opposed to proposed military action against Iraq as former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch looks on during a debate titled "Iraq - Should We Attack Now?" on October 17, 2002 at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Allison and Deutch were members of the Council on Foreign Relations and members of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken on October 17, 2002. (Photo by William B. Plowman / Getty Images)

Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (left) and Joseph Nye Jr. (right), former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, chat with each other during a break of a hearing before the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill on November 6, 2007. The subcommittee held the second part of its hearing on "Six Years Later - Assessing Long-Term Threats, Risks and the U.S. Strategy for Security in a Post 9/11 World." Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye Jr. are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Getty Images)

President Bill Clinton (left) greets Mexico’s President Ernesto Zedillo during ceremonies at the White House on October 10, 1995. Ernesto Zedillo is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Bill Clinton was a member of the Trilateral Commission.(Richard Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

Exxon Chairman and CEO Lee Raymond and Mobil Chairman and CEO Lucio Noto agree to merge Exxon and Mobil. Lee Raymond and Lucio Noto were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left to right: Frank Carlucci, Paul Volcker, and Donna Shalala testify before Congress. Paul Volcker is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Frank Carlucci and Donna Shalala were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks to reporters after meeting with economic advisors on Capitol Hill on May 6, 2008. Standing in the background are (from left to right): economist Allen Sinai, Lee Sachs (former assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets), former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY), Iris Lav (deputy director of Center on Budget Policy Priorities), and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Lawrence Summers and Charlie Rangel are members of the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo)

Left to right: President Bill Clinton, U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, and U.S. Air Force General Joseph W. Ralston appear at a ceremony. Clinton and Cohen were members of the Trilateral Commission. Ralston is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

U.S. Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and U.S. Army General Henry H. Shelton, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, honor former U.S. Senator and astronaut John Glenn at a party. William S. Cohen and John Glenn were members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

President Bill Clinton receives Raymond Chretien’s credential. Raymond Chretien was the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Bill Clinton and Raymond Chretien were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Former President Bill Clinton celebrates with U.S. Congressman Charlie Rangel (center). Charlie Rangel is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: President Bill Clinton greets former Trilateral Commission member Walter Mondale.Right photo: President Bill Clinton greets Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: Brookings Institution President Michael Armacost, William S. Cohen, and Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov celebrate at a party. Michael Armacost and William S. Cohen were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Right photo: U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe (left), former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright (center), and Ambassador Jerzy Kozminski, former Polish Ambassador to the United States, stand together in Warsaw, Poland on June 15, 2007. Madeleine Albright and Jerzy Kozminski are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: U.S. Embassy in Poland)

Joseph S. Nye Jr. (center) sits next to Anne-Marie Slaughter (left, holding a menu in her hands) at a party at Harvard University. Nye and Slaughter are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: Lawrence Summers (left), President of Harvard University, shakes hands with David Rockefeller (center) at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (near Boston) on December 9, 2004. Lawrence Summers and David Rockefeller were members of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken on December 9, 2004.

The Maharajah of Jodpur (India) speaks to Trilateral Commission members Richard Holbrooke (center) and Strobe Talbott.

From left, David W. Heleniak, Vice Chairman of Morgan Stanley, Italian tiremaker Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera, and Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott share a word at a meeting of the Council for Italy and U.S. Relations in Venice, Italy on June 26, 2009. Provera and Talbott are members of the Trilateral Commission. Heleniak and Talbott are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. (AP Photo)

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld meets with South Korean Ambassador to the United States Han Sung Joo (center) and Maj. Gen. Moon Young Han (left) inside Rumsfeld’s Pentagon office on October 1, 2004. Han Sung Joo is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Department of Defense photo by Master Sgt. James M. Bowman, U.S. Air Force)

Left to right: Richard Armitage (former Deputy Secretary of State), Richard Holbrooke (former U.S. Representative to the United Nations), the Dalai Lama, and Strobe Talbott (President of the Brookings Institution) participate in a meeting sponsored by the Asia Society, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) at the Park Hyatt Hotel Ballroom in Washington, D.C. on October 18, 2007. Richard Armitage and Strobe Talbott were members of the Trilateral Commission at the time this photo was taken. Richard Holbrooke was a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Julie Adler/Jane Moore)

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen (left) and Argentinian Minister of Defense Ricardo Lopez Murphy (right) sign an agreement in Manaus, Brazil, on October 17, 2000. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

Trilateral Commission bureaucrats Ricardo Lopez Murphy, Argentina’s Minister of Defense, and William S. Cohen review the troops at the Pentagon on May 17, 2000. (Photo: U.S. Department of Defense)

Leslie Gelb, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Peter G. Peterson, Cyrus Vance, and Kofi Annan stand together in 1999.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Roger W. Ferguson appear at a Federal Reserve meeting. Roger W. Ferguson is a member of the Trilateral Commission; Alan Greenspan is a former member of the Trilateral Commission.

Trilateral Commission member and Bilderberg Meetings participant Mario Monti (right) speaks to Lazard Freres Chairman and CEO Bruce Wasserstein (left) at the Harold Pratt House. Wasserstein is not a member of the Trilateral Commission.

Trilateral Commission members Richard N. Haass (left) and Carla A. Hills appear at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Trilateral Commission members Richard N. Haass (left) and Maurice Greenberg appear at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Richard Holbrooke (left) talks to Cyrus Vance at the Harold Pratt House. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Trilateral Commission members Richard Holbrooke (left) and Richard Perle participate in a meeting at the Harold Pratt House.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Trilateral Commission members Richard Holbrooke (left) and Louis V. Gerstner Jr. (right) meet at the Harold Pratt House.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Henry Kissinger, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, and Fareed Zakaria appear at the Harold Pratt House. Henry Kissinger and Fareed Zakaria are members of the Trilateral Commission. Laura D’Andrea Tyson was a member of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

John C. Whitehead (center) and Peter Tarnoff (right) listen to Peter G. Peterson. All three men were members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Winston Lord (center) talks to George P. Shultz (left) and David Rockefeller at the Harold Pratt House. All three men were members of the Trilateral Commission in 1998. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Leslie Gelb (left) and AIG Chairman and CEO Maurice Greenberg smile for the camera. Leslie Gelb and Maurice Greenberg were members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Peter G. Peterson (center), the Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb & Co., delivers a speech while World Bank President A.W. Clausen (right) listens. Peter G. Peterson and A.W. Clausen were members of the Trilateral Commission. This photo appears in the 1983 Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report.

Cyrus Vance (left) talks to Carroll L. Wilson (center) and Robert V. Roosa at the Harold Pratt House in New York City in 1979. All three men were original members of the Trilateral Commission in 1973.

Cyrus Vance (left) talks to Henry Kissinger (center) and David Rockefeller at the Harold Pratt House on January 19, 1999.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Left to right: U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Lynn E. Davis, Robert F. Erburu, and Warren Christopher meet privately in Los Angeles on April 3, 1992. All four people in this photo are members of the Council on Foreign Relations, and all four individuals have been members of the Trilateral Commission. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Kim Kyung-Won, Yuan Ming, and Yoichi Funabashi are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Trilateral Commission members Richard Holbrooke (left) and Leslie Gelb appear at a meeting together.

Richard Holbrooke (left) chats with fellow Trilateral Commission member George Soros at the Harold Pratt House, headquarters of the Council on Foreign Relations, in New York City. (Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown (left) and former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale appear together at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting. Both men were members of the Trilateral Commission.(Photo: Council on Foreign Relations Annual Report)

Winston Lord and David Rockefeller listen to President of University of Notre Dame Theodore Hesburgh at a dinner. All three men in this photo were members of the Trilateral Commission in 1985.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (left), former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Peter G. Peterson (center), and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger smile for the camera at the Harold Pratt House in New York City. All three men were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, meets with California Governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, in Washington D.C. on October 29, 2003. Schwarzenegger is not a member of the Trilateral Commission. This photo was published on Senator Dianne Feinstein’s website.

Left photo: Anne-Marie Slaughter appears with fellow Trilateral Commission member Robert S. McNamara at Princeton University in 2004.

Right: Joseph S. Nye Jr. (left), Dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, takes part in a panel discussion on globalization in education with Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers, Dean of Harvard Law School Robert Clark, and Law School Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter (standing). Nye, Summers, and Slaughter are members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left photo: Japan’s Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa (left) and President Bill Clinton stand in the prime minister's garden in Tokyo following Clinton's arrival for the G-7 Summit on July 6, 1993. Former Prime Minister Miyazawa died on June 28, 2007; he was 87. Kiichi Miyazawa and Bill Clinton were members of the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, FILE)

Right photo: Prime Minister of Canada Brian Mulroney (left) and Secretary of State George P. Shultz smile for the camera. Brian Mulroney and George P. Shultz were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Left: U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky talks to Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. Charlene Barshefsky and Lawrence Summers were members of the Trilateral Commission.

Right: U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale chats with Trilateral Commission member Robert S. Strauss.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (wearing sunglasses) is seen walking with PepsiCo. CEO Indra Nooyi and Washington Post Co. Chairman and CEO Donald E. Graham at the Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in 2004. Henry Kissinger, Indra Nooyi, and Donald E. Graham are members of the Trilateral Commission. The man on the far left is unidentified. (Photo: Daniel Estulin)

Left photo: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan (left) shakes hands with former Foreign Minister of Indonesia Ali Alatas as former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and Foreign Minister of Ireland Dermot Ahern (right) look on during their meeting at the headquarters of United Nations in New York City on April 5, 2005.

Right photo: Trilateral Commission member Ernesto Zedillo, President of Mexico, shakes hands with Tony Blair (left), Prime Minister of Great Britain in an undated photo.

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial (left) jokes with Republican Party presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) at the National Urban League Conference in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. on August 1, 2008. Marc Morial is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo by John Raoux) http://www.daylife.com/photo/04B2eku5oic8H/marc_morial

Indra K. Nooyi (left), the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, watches U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice embrace former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, at the end of the opening session of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 23, 2008. Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger attended the 2008 Bilderberg Meetings in Chantilly, Virginia in June 2008. Indra Nooyi attended the 2004 Bilderberg Meetings in Stresa, Italy in June 2004. Nooyi, Rice, and Kissinger are (or were) members of the Trilateral Commission.(AP Photo by Peter DeJong)

HBO Co-President Richard Plepler (left) and Henry Kissinger attend the HBO documentary screening of "Terror In Mumbai" at Time Warner Center Screening Room in New York City on November 4, 2009. Richard Plepler and Henry Kissinger were members of the Trilateral Commission in 2009. (Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America)

Film narrator and CNN correspondent Fareed Zakaria (left) and Henry Kissinger (right) address the audience following the HBO documentary screening of “Terror In Mumbai" at Time Warner Center Screening Room in New York City on November 4, 2009. Fareed Zakaria and Henry Kissinger were members of the Trilateral Commission in 2009.(Photo: Michael Loccisano/Getty Images North America)

Henry Kissinger, Chairman of Kissinger Associates, USA, speaks with Tarun Das, Chief Mentor, Confederation of Indian Industry, India, at the World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2008 in New Delhi, India on November 16, 2008. (16-18 November 2008). Henry Kissinger and Tarun Das are members of the Trilateral Commission. (Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org)/Photo by Norbert Schiller)

Joe Caci (L), vice president of Canada's Research In Motion (RIM), and Ryuji Yamada (R), vice president of Japan's mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo, hold a big display of "BlackBerry 8707h" during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan on July 17, 2007. Ryuji Yamada is a member of the Trilateral Commission. (Getty Images)

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI

Godfather of theTrilateral Commission

Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and Madeleine Albright laugh together. All three individuals in this photo are members of the Trilateral Commission. This photo appears in p. 396 of the book Madeleine Albright: A Twentieth-Century Odyssey by Michael Dobbs. (State Department photo)

Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, shares a toast with Soviet Russian Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin at the White House in June 1977. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

“We cannot leap into world government in one quick step…It requires a process of gradually expanding the range of democratic opposition…a widening, step by step, stone by stone, existing relatively narrow zones of stability…the precondition for eventual globalization – genuine globalization – is progressive regionalization, because thereby we move toward larger, more stable, more cooperative units.”– Zbigniew Brzezinski, in an address to Mikhail Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum in October 1995

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski toast Deng Xiaoping at Zbigniew’s home in January 1979. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and his wife Muska (second from right) have a dinner with Red China’s Commissar Deng Xiaoping in Red China in May 1978. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

From left to right: Guy J. Pauker, Zbigniew Brzezinski, National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy, Eric Sevareid, Hans Morgenthau, O. Edmund Clubb, and John D. Donoghue engage in a debate on Vietnam War on June 21, 1965. Pauker, Brzezinski, Bundy, and Morgenthau are or were members of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Left: Zbigniew Brzezinski listens to Henry Kissinger during a meeting at the Harold Pratt House in 1965.Right: Zbigniew Brzezinski stands beside international financier George Soros at the Harold Pratt House.

President Jimmy Carter (center) and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (left) meet with former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1977. (NARA - Carter Library) http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/west-wing/oval-office-history.htm

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski work together at Camp David.(Photo: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library)http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/campdavid25/campdavid25_photos.phtml

Jimmy Carter meets with Trilateral Commission members in the Cabinet Room on November 9, 1979. Counterclockwise from left to right: Lloyd Cutler, Hedley Donovan, Walter Mondale, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter, Cyrus Vance, Harold Brown, Warren Christopher, Hamilton Jordan, and Jody Powell. Everyone except for Jordan and Powell is or was a member of the Trilateral Commission. All eight Trilateral Commission members in this photo were original members of the Trilateral Commission in 1973.

Secretary of State Cyrus Vance reads a secret document while President Jimmy Carter (center) talks to National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski on November 20, 1979.

President Jimmy Carter (left, obscured) talks to National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and Vice President Walter Mondale in July 1977. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

President Jimmy Carter talks to National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. David Jones, and Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher (left of Carter) at a meeting in February 1979. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter (seated, left) signs a disarmament treaty with Soviet Russia’s Commissar Leonid Brezhnev (seated, right) in Vienna, Austria on June 18, 1979. Standing, left to right: unidentified man, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. David Jones, National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown, U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko. Soviet Ambassador to America Anatoly Dobrynin is seen standing behind . State Department official Leslie Gelb (later President of the Council on Foreign Relations) is seen standing behind Harold Brown. Carter, Vance, Brown, Gelb, and Brzezinski are (or were) members of the Trilateral Commission.

Alfred L. Atherton Jr., Jimmy Carter, W. Michael Blumenthal, Harold Saunders, Harold Brown, Cyrus Vance, and Zbigniew Brzezinski are (or were) members of the Council on Foreign Relations. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Zbigniew Brzezinski introduces Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan (left), to Paul Wolfowitz, Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, in April 1998.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski plays a game of chess with Israel’s Prime Minister and former Irgun Zvai Leumi (IZL) terrorist Menachem Begin. (Photo: Jimmy Carter Library)http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/documents/campdavid25/campdavid25_photos.phtml

President Jimmy Carter, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski have a meeting with Israel’s Prime Minister Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan (obscured, part of his eyepatch is visible), and Ezer Weizmann (back of his head facing the camera) at Camp David on September 10, 1978. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

President Jimmy Carter smiles as National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski shakes hands with Shah Reza Pahlavi of Iran in Washington D.C. in November 1977. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Zbigniew Brzezinski talks to John Temple Swing at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting. (Photo: CFR Annual Report)

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski visits Pope John Paul II in Rome in June 1980. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Zbigniew Brzezinski talks with Chester Crocker (center) and J. Robinson West (right) at a party.

This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Cyrus Vance talks to Zbigniew Brzezinski. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski talks to Japan’s Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda in May 1978. Takeo Fukuda was a member of the Trilateral Commission. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Trilateral Commission members in this photo include Jimmy Carter, Cyrus Vance, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and David Owen. This photo appears in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s book Power and Principle.

Zbigniew Brzezinski inspects an AK-47 at the Khyber Pass in February 1980.

Zbigniew Brzezinski (right) and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visit Viktor Yushchenko in December 2005.(Photo: http://blog.kievukraine.info/2005_12_01_archive.html)

Senator Chuck Hagel (left), Zbigniew Brzezinski (center), and Senator Richard Lugar meet on Capitol Hill. Chuck Hagel and Zbigniew Brzezinski are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. Richard Lugar is a Rhodes Scholar.

Left to right: Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, former Secretary of State Dean Rusk, former President Gerald Ford, former Secretary of State William P. Rogers, and former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft stand together in Gerald Ford’s private office at the Gerald R. Ford Library on November 10, 1982. All six men in this photo were members of the Council on Foreign Relations at the time this photo was taken on November 10, 1982. (University of Michigan)

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (left) and Senator John Warner meet privately during a Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Theater and Nuclear Forces hearings on Star Wars on February 1, 1985.(Photo by Terry Ashe/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)

President Bill Clinton looks at former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski during a meeting with the Committee for American Leadership in Bosnia at the White House on December 6, 1995. (Luke Frazza/AFP/Getty Images)

President Ronald Reagan (center) delivers a speech concerning aid to Nicaragua’s Contras fighters on April 1, 1985 as (from left to right) former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, and Vice President George Bush stand behind Ronald Reagan.(Photo by Diana Walker//Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images)

Left to right: Retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, Rep. John Larson (D-CT), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski hold a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 13, 2006. Wesley Clark, Jane Harman, Madeleine Albright, and Zbigniew Brzezinski are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dMq6FJ0HX3Jh

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) (left) watches former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski embrace former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright before holding a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 13, 2006. Former Army General Wesley K. Clark is seen standing in the background. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is standing on the far right. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)http://www.daylife.com/photo/0eNC0yTaOO4Kk

Left to right: Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, Rep. John Larson (D-CT), former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) meet privately after a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 13, 2006. Brzezinski and Clark are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (left) and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark attend a meeting in the office of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) before a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 13, 2006. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)http://www.daylife.com/photo/06vM5BB8A54vN

United States House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), former Clinton Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski hold a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on September 13, 2006. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)http://www.daylife.com/photo/04kK6bT1I51wM

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski appears at a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on September 13, 2006.(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) http://www.daylife.com/photo/0b1ebAr2rw9lG

President Jimmy Carter (left) meets with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance (middle), and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski.

President Jimmy Carter and Gen. Omar Torrijos of Panama sign the ratified Panama Canal treaties in Panama City, Panama on June 16, 1978. Sitting in rear are (left to right): U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young; U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski; and Sen. John Sparkman, D-Alabama, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Jimmy Carter, Andrew Young, and Zbigniew Brzezinski are members of the Council on Foreign Relations. (Bettmann/CORBIS)

In this April 15, 1985 file picture, President Ronald Reagan meets in the White House Oval Office with conservative leaders of Washington's national defense establishment, which he hopes will help him sell Congress on his request for $14 million, for guerrillas battling Nicaragua's leftist government. From left at rear are former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, former United Nations Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Defense Secretary James Schlesinger and Vice President George Bush. (AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi)

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld greets former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci (left), and former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski (right) in 2003.(Stephen Crowley/The New York Times)

Former National Security Advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski (left) and Brent Scowcroft (right) arrive on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on March 5, 2009, followed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman U.S. Senator John Kerry prior to testifying before the committee's hearing on U.S. strategy in Iran. (AP Photo)

Red China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (center) meets with Carla A. Hills (left), the Co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, and Zbigniew Brzezinski (right) before speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. on March 12, 2009. Carla A. Hills and Zbigniew Brzezinski are members of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. (AP Photo)

Zbigniew Brzezinski and his family smile for the camera. Left to right: Ian Brzezinski, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Muska Brzezinski (Mrs. Zbigniew Brzezinski), and Mark Brzezinski. (Photo: http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art432fr.htm)