Trilateral Commission facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
The Trilateral Commission

Founded	1973 (1973)
Founders	David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski
Type	Annual conference
Headquarters	Tokyo (Asia Pacific Group) Paris (European Group) Washington, D.C. (North American Group)
Members	More than 390
Chairman	Takeshi Niinami (Asia Pacific chairman) Jean-Claude Trichet (European chairman) Meghan O'Sullivan (North American chairman)

The Trilateral Commission is a private group that brings together important people from Japan, Western Europe, and North America. It was started in July 1973 by David Rockefeller, an American banker. He wanted to help these powerful regions work together better, especially as their economies became more connected.

The group's leaders now focus on sharing common values like the rule of law, open economies, and democratic ideas. The Trilateral Commission has an executive committee and three main leaders, one for each region: Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. Their main offices are in Paris, Washington, D.C., and Tokyo.

They hold big meetings once a year in different locations. Smaller meetings happen throughout the year. At these gatherings, members talk about reports and plan ways to achieve the group's goals. The Trilateral Commission includes about 400 members from politics, business, media, and universities. Each country gets a certain number of members based on its size and importance.

History

How the Commission Started

The Trilateral Commission was created in 1973 by private citizens from Japan, North America (the U.S. and Canada), and Western Europe. Their goal was to encourage important talks about politics and money around the world. The idea for the group came about in the early 1970s, when there was some disagreement between the United States and its allies.

The founders believed that countries were becoming more connected. They felt that Japan, Western Europe, and North America had a special duty to work together. This was important for their own good and for the rest of the world.

They also wanted these regions to talk and cooperate more closely. This would help them create shared plans for common problems. The Commission hoped to be a place where people could freely share ideas with other countries and regions. They also cared about helping developing countries and improving relations between East and West.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, an expert in international affairs, helped set up the group. He later became a top advisor to President Jimmy Carter. Other important founding members included:

• Edwin Reischauer, a professor and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.
• George S. Franklin, who led the Council on Foreign Relations.
• Gerard C. Smith, a key negotiator for arms control.
• Henry D. Owen, who directed foreign policy studies.
• Max Kohnstamm, from the European Policy Centre.
• Robert R. Bowie, from the Foreign Policy Association.
• Tadashi Yamamoto, from the Japan Center for International Exchange.
• William Scranton, a former governor of Pennsylvania.

Two other founding members, Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker, later became leaders of the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve System. The group's official records are kept at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York.

Meetings

The Trilateral Commission began holding meetings in October 1973 in Tokyo, Japan. In May 1976, all the regional groups met together for the first time in Kyoto, Japan. Since 1978, these big meetings have happened every year. Besides these annual meetings, regional meetings are also held for the Asia Pacific, European, and North American groups. The group also publishes an official journal called Trialogue.

Membership

The number of members is split up based on the size of each of the three regions. North America has 120 members: 20 from Canada, 13 from Mexico, and 87 from the United States. The European group has 170 members from almost every country on the continent. Germany has 20 members, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom each have 18, Spain has 12, and other countries have 1 to 6 members.

At first, only Japan represented Asia and Oceania. But in 2000, the Japanese group grew into the Pacific Asia group, with 117 members. This included 75 Japanese, 11 South Koreans, 7 Australians and New Zealanders, and 15 members from Southeast Asian nations like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. The group also included 9 members from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Today, the Commission says it has "more than 100" Pacific Asian members.

The Trilateral Commission's rules generally do not allow government officials to be members. Its members come from politics, business, and universities. There are three chairpersons, one from each region.

Leadership

As of September 2021, the main leaders include:

Notable Members

Many well-known people have been members of the Trilateral Commission. These include:

• Antony Blinken, the current U.S. Secretary of State.
• Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and former mayor of New York City.
• George H. W. Bush, a former President of the United States.
• Jimmy Carter, a former President of the United States.
• Henry Kissinger, a former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor.
• Walter Mondale, a former Vice President of the United States.
• Mario Monti, a former prime minister of Italy.
• Eric E. Schmidt, the former CEO of Google.
• Keir Starmer, the current British Prime Minister.
• Jake Sullivan, the current U.S. National Security Advisor.

Assessments

Some people have criticized the Trilateral Commission. For example, academic Noam Chomsky has said that the group is not very democratic. He pointed to one of their books, The Crisis of Democracy, which suggested that too much public interest in politics in the 1970s was a problem. Chomsky believed this showed that powerful groups wanted to keep the public from being too involved in democracy.

Other critics say the Commission tries to create a global agreement among powerful international leaders. They believe this is done to manage world affairs in a way that benefits the wealthy business and financial leaders who are part of the group.

In 1980, Senator Barry Goldwater suggested that the group was trying to take control of four main areas: politics, money, ideas, and religion. He thought they wanted to create a worldwide economic power that would be stronger than individual countries' governments.

Conspiracy theories involving the Trilateral Commission

Some people who believe in conspiracy theories think the Trilateral Commission is secretly planning a world government. For example, some have accused the group of being involved in major events to create a "new world order."

However, economist Anthony C. Sutton, who was critical of the Commission's goals, also said it was "not a conspiracy." He pointed out that its list of members is public. He also noted that he had debated a high-ranking member on a radio show, saying, "Conspirators just don't appear on radio talk shows to debate their objectives."

Charles Krauthammer, a political writer, once joked about these theories. When asked about the "Republican establishment," he humorously described a secret meeting with rituals and a "pledge of allegiance to the Trilateral Commission." This showed how widely known, and sometimes mocked, these conspiracy theories are.

See also

In Spanish: Comisión Trilateral para niños