American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission [Paperback]

This book is a must! why you ask? well, it is one of the first and more authoritative books written on the thesis of a Global Power Elite. This book answers the burning questions as to the origin of Globalisation and the rise of the Neo-liberal ideology and more recently the mass protests organised against the IMF, World Bank and the World Economic Forum . So far sociologists and anthropologists have occupied themselves with mere micro-issues in academic circles, but Stephen Gill breaks this mould. Stephen Gill relates the through research made on the Trilateral Commission (TC) since its foundation in 1973; the origins and the rationale which was either provoked(apparently) by the two oil shocks of the 1970's along with increasing military burden and defeat in Vietnam and falling support for American foreign policy. Stephen Gill uses three modes of interpretation :Marxists, Liberal and Realist. He also provides provides ethnographies from the Trilateral members which aid in the process of understanding the background of its members with special regard to David Rockefeller. Gill's approach is not so much aimed at criticising the Trilateral Commission but to give a more objective view of this Global Power Elite. He also discusses the similarity of approach made by the Western European Bilderberg Group, the American Council on Foreign Relations (US),the Royal Institute of International Affairs (UK), the Japanase Center for International Exchange (JCIE) and as he says, its not mere question of conspiracy but more of corporativist politics and a social and economic fact.

The Rise to Globalism The Trilateral Commissiona as Gill argues seeks not only to ancipitate threats to its authority but also to drive the Reform Agenda as its numerous members from academia and the mass press demostrate with memberships consisting of the scions from American Corporate Big Business, political scientists, Media Barons and politicians. Members like Zbiniew Brzenski, Henry Kissinger, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Conrad Black ,Bill Clinton, David Rockefeller, James D Wolfensohn (World Bank), Stanley Fischer (deputy leader of the IMF), Western European leaders of Business and finance and heads of Japan's biggest corporations such as the Xerox-Fuji, Mitsubishi bank and Mitsui Bank. The rationale of the TC is bring together the three most powerful Western Elites together to reconcile their interests so as not to conflict in their pursuit of national interests which could lead to an eventual armed conflict as it was the case with WWI and WWI; it was Zbiniew Brzenski who is cited by S Gill as saying that if America did not share its leadership role (The Grand Area )with its counterparts in Japan (Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere) and Western Europe meaning the rising German hegemomy in Europe ( the Lebensraum), a breakdown of the current world order would occur when faced with Middle East threat over oil and commodity resources. The idea behind the Trilateral Commission is to forge a new coalition of Western Powers with aspirations to Imperialism within their spheres of influence via on-going dialogue. This book American Hegemony and the Trilateral Commission by Stephen Gill I highly recommend to academics, journalists, students, prostetors against globalisation and the public at large because of its very approachable writing and informative style.