Trilateral Commission

The Trilateral Commission has approximately 400 members, who come from business, media, academia, former government service, and nongovernmental organizations. ⁴ The organization makes its membership public. ⁵

History and Leadership

The Trilateral Commission was founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller, Sr., the father of David Rockefeller, Jr. ⁶ The Trilateral Commission’s origins can be traced to an unsuccessful effort by Rockefeller in 1972 to include Japan in the Bilderberg Meeting, an annual, invitation-only conference for dialogue among European and North American power centers. After Bilderberg rejected admitting the Japanese, Rockefeller created a new group that would include Japanese participation that became the Trilateral Commission. ⁷

The commission’s first full-time director was Zbigniew Brzezinski, later National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter. ² Carter, at the time the governor of Georgia, was one of the Commission’s 60 inaugural members in 1973. ^{8 9}

In 1975, the Trilateral Commission published the report The Crisis of Democracy in which the authors asserted that democracy’s fatal weakness was its propensity to cause inflation. Realist foreign policy thinker Samuel Huntington argued that that it was an “excess of democracy” that led to some of these destabilizing economic factors. ^{10 11}

In 2009, the Trilateral Group’s Japan Group expanded to become the Asia Pacific Group when the organization added Chinese and Indian members. The European Group continues to expand with the enlargement of the European Union, and Mexican members have been added to the North American group. ³ In 2013, the Trilateral Commission created a fellows program to foster young international affairs practitioners. ¹²

Meghan O’Sullivan, a former George W. Bush administration official who is a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, ¹³ is the Trilateral Commission’s North America Group chair. Axel Weber, a former chairman of the board of UBS Group and former president of the German Bundesbank, is the European Group chair. Takeshi Niinami, the CEO of Suntory Holdings, is the Asia Pacific Group chair. ¹⁴

The Trilateral Commission maintains offices in Washington, D.C.; Paris, France; and Tokyo, Japan. ¹⁵

Regional Groups and Membership

The Trilateral Commission consists of three regional groups for North America, Europe, and Asia. The organizations’ leadership team consists of a chairman, deputy chairman, and an executive director. The commission also has an executive committee of 74 members ¹⁶ and its membership includes prominent members with experience in politics, business, journalism, and think tank advocacy in the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. ¹⁷

Initially, the Trilateral Commission intended to give each region an equal number of members in the organization. In 1980, the Commission capped the total number of members. As of August 2022, the North American Group includes 124 members from Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The European Group contains 184 members from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. The Asia Pacific Group includes 96 members from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. ^{18 19}

Trilateral Commission membership is invitation-only and includes about 400 members of business, media, academia, public service, and nongovernmental organizations from the three regions; serving government officials are not permitted to be members. ²⁰ The organization welcomes new members on an annual basis, and the rotation period and recruitment measures vary by each regional grouping. All three regions also operate their own David Rockefeller Fellows program. ¹⁸

As of August 2022, Paolo Magri is the European director, Richard Fontaine is the North American director, and Hideo Katsuyama is the Asia Pacific director. ²¹ Fontaine is also the executive director of the left-of-center Center for a New American Security think tank. Previously he worked as foreign policy advisor to then-Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). He also worked at the U.S. State Department and at the White House National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration. ²²

Biden administration officials who are former members of the Trilateral Commission include U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Federal Reserve Board Member Lael Brainard, Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski, Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. These individuals left the Trilateral Commission as actively serving government officials are not eligible to be members of the commission. ¹⁷

As of 2022, the North America Executive Committee includes Marc Allen of Boeing, Esther Brimmer of the Association of International Educators, Former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Paula Dobriansky of Harvard University and the Atlantic Council, Richard Falkenrath of Bridgewater Associates, Diana Farrell of the Urban Institute, David Gergen of CNN, former U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), former George H.W. Bush administration U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and David Rubenstein. ¹⁸

As of 2022, North American Group members include representatives from Boeing, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, George Washington University, Apple, Mastercard, TikTok, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Columbia University, the Atlantic Council, BlackRock Investment Institute, the Washington Post, eBay, Black Rock, Inc., Center for Public Leadership, Lockheed Martin, the Brookings Institution, Eurasia Group, New York Times, McKinsey and Co., Georgetown University, Albright Stonebridge Group, and MSNBC. ²³

Former government officials who are members include Trump administration Deputy Secretary of Commerce Bruce Andrews, former Mayor of New York City and unsuccessful 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, and former U.S. Reps. Jane Harman (D-CA) and Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA). ²¹

North American Group Fellows include representatives from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Amazon Web Services, and the Center for a New American Security. ²³

Activities and Funding

The Trilateral Commission fosters closer cooperation between the United States, Europe, and Asia. ²⁴ The Trilateral Commission is governed by an executive committee ²⁴ and hosts events, publishes reports, and interviews its members on various current events and foreign policy, energy, and economic topics. Critics have described the group as an “internationalist organization.” ¹

In the early 1970s, the Trilateral Commission sought to form bipartisan consensus on foreign policy in the United States as new power centers and a new generation of elites came to power in American politics. ²⁵ One of the main objectives of the Trilateral Commission at that time was to bring Japan into the existing North Atlantic alliance framework. ^{26 25}

Trilateral Commission meetings adhere to Chatham House rules, under which members are not permitted to reveal details about its discussions. In recent years, the Asia Pacific Group has tried to encourage diverse perspectives. ²⁴ In 2022, members of the Asia-Pacific group suggested that if the United States had teamed with China on Ukraine policy, the Russian-Ukrainian war may have been settled swiftly. ²⁴ They also asserted that “shutting out China” cannot be the answer to future economic developments and suggested that China is a massive economic entity that will continue to be involved in all of our lives. ²⁴

In 2021, the Trilateral Commission established the Task Force on Global Capitalism in Transition. The task force was formed to address challenges facing societies and address concerns that market-based economies would be able to address challenges including climate change, disruptions triggered by the digital revolution, and rising inequalities. ²⁷

The report concluded that three factors influence the future trajectory of capitalism: shared understanding and direction of capitalism, investment in new technologies, and formal and informal rules that enable capitalism to operate and innovate. ²⁸ The report identified a changing climate as “the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century” and suggested that nations should achieve so-called “net zero” carbon emissions by pursuing environmentalist policies to achieve this goal by 2050. ²⁹

The report also recommended the establishment of a “climate club” among advanced economies to establish a price on carbon, agree on global carbon pricing, accelerate green financing policies, and other carbon pricing-related information. Additionally, the report suggests the creation of a World Trade Organization-like organization to manage digital trade and digitization. ²⁹

The Trilateral Commission has also called for a “social compact with the next generations” to prioritize what the group views as equality of opportunity as a part of what it identifies as capitalism’s fifth stage. The commission has also recommended the recognition of diversity, suggested that every person should benefit from the digital revolution, and said that every person should have the chance to achieve their full potential in the future of capitalism. ²⁹

Trilateral Commission hosted webinars on COVID-19 pandemic issues during 2020 and 2021. The commission recorded interviews with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, ³⁰ U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, and others. ³¹

The Trilateral Commission has also issued reports that promote the critical race theory-influenced concept of social equity as a part of what the Trilateral Commission calls “social democratic capitalism.” ³²

In June 2020, Trilateral Commission hosted an event following the murder of George Floyd in which panelists discussed “how racism is manifesting itself in the United States.” Meghan O’Sullivan, the event’s host, claimed that the United States is riddled with systemic racism. Speakers in this event included Margaret Long, president of the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC); left-of-center Vera Institute of Justice board member Khalil Muhammad; and former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu (D). In his remarks, Landrieu claimed that the murder of George Floyd was symbolic of the entire history of the United States. ³³

Criticisms

Since its inception, the Trilateral Commission has faced criticisms and accusations that it is a part of a global government movement or a “new world order” to govern global society due to the turnover between the commission and senior government officials. ⁷ In 1974, Henry Kissinger called the Trilateral Commission “eunuchs … running around town saying that we are trying to confront the Arabs,” a criticism of the group’s opposition to Nixon administration foreign policy. ³⁴ Left-wing academic Noam Chomsky has also made broad criticisms of the Trilateral Commission. ³⁵

During the 1980 presidential campaign, the Trilateral Commission also drew negative attention when then-candidate Ronald Reagan mentioned that then-President Jimmy Carter, former Director of Central Intelligence George H.W. Bush, and then-U.S. Representative John Anderson (R-IL) all shared the same international policy views of the Trilateral Commission. ³⁶

These criticisms continued in the 1990s, as former Republican Party presidential candidate and televangelist Pat Robertson published a New York Times bestselling book entitled The New World Order, that alleged the Trilateral Commission was a part of a “tightly knit cabal” of global government organizations. ^{37 38} While the two groups are often compared, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is not a part of the Trilateral Commission. ³⁹

Funding

The Trilateral Commission is funded by personal donations, corporate donations, and foundation grants. ¹ In 2019, Trilateral Commission North America reported revenue of $896,891 and expenses of $463,323. ⁴⁰ In 2018, Trilateral Commission North America reported revenue of $1,316,965 and expenses of $580,860. ⁴¹

In 2020, Trilateral Commission received a $400,000 grant from the left-of-center William and Flora Hewlett Foundation to “reexamine capitalism” and provide modifications or alternatives to capitalism in the post-COVID-19 pandemic world. The study will also examine how society can become more “inclusive and equitable.” ⁴² That same year, the Trilateral Commission received $50,000 from the Schwab Charitable Fund and $25,006 from the America Online Giving Foundation. ⁴³

In 2018, Trilateral Commission received $10,000 from TIAA Charitable. ⁴⁴