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informed, alert, thinking, active.
This is a not for profit site created and funded by unpaid volunteers.
Feb. 2005
Edition
66
This is where we hope to keep you thinking. The site does not focus on diversionary minutia. You get enough of that incessant spin coming from mainstream media.
The Corporate Consensus:
A Guide to the Institutions of Global Power
Continuation Part 2: The Dynamics of Power
by George Draffan
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth Street NW
Washington DC 20036
Telephone: 202-862-5800
Fax: 202-862-7177
The American Enterprise Institute is a think-tank founded in 1943 which promotes "free markets, free trade, a vigilant defense, and individual freedom and responsibility." AEI is "dedicated to preserving and strengthening the foundations of a free [sic] society-limited government, competitive private enterprise, vital cultural and political institutions, and vigilant defense-through rigorous inquiry, debate, and writing."
AEI has 50 resident scholars who write books, articles, and reports and a magazine, The American Enterprise. These publications are distributed to government officials and legislators, business executives, journalists, and academics. AEI also has more than 100 "adjunct scholars" at universities and policy institutes in the U.S. and abroad, and claims it is "cited and reprinted in the national media more often than those of any other think tank."
AEI claims it is "strictly nonpartisan and takes no institutional positions on pending legislation or other policy questions," but AEI scholars testify before congressional committees and advise all branches of government.
AEI is governed by 26 trustees including corporate and Pentagon insider Dick Cheney and executives from major corporations including State Farm Insurance, Motorola, American Express, Enron, Alcoa, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Dow Chemical. AEI officers include Samuel P. Huntington (Harvard professor, member of National Security Council, architect of forced urbanization in Vietnam, author of Trilateral Commission report on "excess democracy"), former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and economist Murray L. Weidenbaum, architect of deregulation under Reagan.
AEI is a tax-exempt non-profit organization with income of more than $19 million in 1998. Foundations provided 42 percent, corporations donated 28 percent, individuals donated 23 percent, and the rest came from conferences, sales, investments. Research, publishing, and conferences accounted for more than 75 percent of 1998 expenses. About 40 percent of research expenditures went for economic policy studies, and the balance was evenly divided between social and political studies and foreign policy and defense studies.
AEI and the Brookings Institution operate a Joint Center for Regulatory Studies (JCRS) with the purpose of holding lawmakers and regulators "accountable for their decisions by providing thoughtful, objective analyses of existing regulatory programs and new regulatory proposals." The JCRS pushes for cost-benefit analysis of regulations, which fits with AEI's ultimate goal of deregulation.
The Joint Center's advisory board includes academics from Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and other universities. The Center's work features legal and economic luminaries such as Philip K. Howard, vice chairman of Covington & Burling, where he serves as a senior corporate adviser and strategist focusing on mergers and acquisitions, as well as regulatory and litigation advice. Howard is the author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America and contributes op-ed pages to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He advised U.S. Vice President Al Gore on his "Reinventing Government" initiatives, and was an advisor to the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission's Task Force on Regulatory Simplification in 1996 and 1997.
The Joint Center also sponsors the work of Maureen L. Cropper, a principal economist at the World Bank, professor of economics at the University of Maryland, university fellow at Resources for the Future, and member of the EPA's Science and Advisory Board. Her research delves into such areas as "valuing environmental amenities from an empirical and theoretical perspective," the "public preferences for saving lives at different times and among persons of different ages," and "valuing the health impacts of pollution in developing countries and with the economics of deforestation."
AEI pushes free-market principles and attacks what it calls "obsolete" regulation of the environment and health and safety, energy, transportation, and the banking, insurance, and other industries. AEI favors privatization of public housing, Social Security, banking, and telecommunications. AEI also examines global trade, and is concerned about how "trade liberalization is being jeopardized by the growth of protectionist sentiment and by efforts to condition trade agreements on harmonization of environmental and labor standards," and questioned the "the practical significance of governmental trade negotiations and financial interventions" in the global economy.
The AEI's New Atlantic Initiative seeks to integrate North American and European political, economic, and security institutions and expand the integration to Central and Eastern Europe. The AEI has created a "Senate Working Group" on Central and Eastern Europe, chaired by U.S. Senators William Roth (R-Del) and Joseph Biden (D-Del), which "aims to provide an arena in which members of the U.S. Senate can discuss transatlantic issues with ambassadors and other officials from Central and Eastern Europe."
Bilderberg
The Bilderberg is a private annual gathering for the politically and corporate influential. The Bilderberg has no formal purpose, but provides a secure annual venue for frank discussion and consensus-building among corporate and government leaders. The first Bilderberg meeting, in 1954, was organized by Joseph Retinger, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, and representatives from Unilever, Harriman, Morgan, Rockefeller, and other corporations.
Bilderberg meets once a year in May or June in a different location: Athens Greece in 1993, Helsinki Finland in 1994, Bürgenstock Switzerland in 1995, Toronto Canada in 1996, Atlanta Georgia USA in 1997, Ayrshire Scotland in 1998, Sintra Portugal in 1999, and Brussels Belgium in 2000. Attendance at Bilderberg is by invitation only and is surrounded by tight security. Bilderberg is European-led but attended by heads of state and businessmen from Western Europe, the U.S., and Canada, as well as by media representatives sympathetic to the establishment view. Until recently, attendance was off the record "in order to encourage frank and open discussion."
U.S. Senator Jacob Javits attended the 1964 Bilderberg meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia, and received permission to publish a background paper explaining the origin and purpose of the Bilderberg meetings, a list of the persons who attended the Williamsburg series, and a list of the first twelve Bilderberg meetings. These were published in the Congressional Record.
Prince Bernhard was chairman until 1976 (when he was implicated in the Lockheed bribery scandal). Lord Peter Carrington, former British Foreign Secretary and secretary general of NATO, was Bilderberg chairman from 1989 to 1998. The current chairman of Bilderberg is Etienne Davignon, director of Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium's leading holding company, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, BASF, ICL, Solvay, and Kissinger Associates.
Bilderberg has no formal membership, but many of the hundred-plus attendees return year after year. The core group consists of the chairman and a steering committee and an advisory group. Long-time members of the Bilderberg steering committee and advisory group include the CEO of Xerox, former members of the U.S. Department of State (including George Ball, William Bundy, and Henry Kissinger), the former prime minister of Portugal, the former secretary-general of NATO, media baron Conrad Black, Vernon Jordan (director of many corporations), Marie-Josée Kravis (nee Drouin; Hudson Institute), David Rockefeller, Renato Ruggiero (former head of the WTO), Jack Sheinkman (former head of the AFL-CIO Amalgamated Textile Workers Union), Peter D. Sutherland (GATT, European Commission, Goldman Sachs, BP Amoco), James D. Wolfensohn (World Bank) (see Appendix 6 for a list of Bilderberg leaders).
Topics discussed at the 48th Bilderberg meeting held in Brussels, Belgium in June 2000 included the upcoming elections in the U.S., globalization and the "new economy," the Balkans, EU enlargement, the European far right.
We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries. -- David Rockefeller, Speaking at the June, 1991 Bilderberger meeting in Baden Baden, Germany
The following is a copy of a May 14, 1998 news release from the Bilderberg meeting in Scotland:
"The 46th Bilderberg Meeting will be held in Turnberry, Scotland, May 14-17, 1998 to discuss the Atlantic Relationship in a Time of Change. Among others the Conference will discuss NATO, Asian Crisis, EMU, Growing Military Disparity, Japan, Multilateral Organizations, Europe's social model, Turkey, EU/US Market Place.
Approximately 120 participants from North America and Europe will attend the discussions. The meeting is private in order to encourage frank and open discussion.
Bilderberg takes its name from the hotel in the Netherlands where the first meeting took place in May 1954. That meeting grew out of the concern on both sides of the Atlantic that the industrialized democracies in Europe and North America were not working together as closely as they should on matters of critical importance. It was felt that regular, off-the-record discussions would contribute to a better understanding of the complex forces and major trends affecting Western nations.
What is unique about Bilderberg as a forum is (1) the broad cross-section of leading citizens, in and out of government, that are assembled for nearly three days of purely informal discussion about topics of current concern especially in the fields of foreign affairs and the international economy, (2) the strong feeling among participants that in view of the differing attitudes and experiences of their nations, there is a continuous, clear need to develop an understanding in which these concerns can be accommodated, and (3) the privacy of the meetings, which have no purpose other than to allow participants to speak their minds openly and freely.
To ensure full discussion, individuals representing a wide range of political and economic points of view are invited. Two-thirds of the participants come from Europe and the remainder from the United States and Canada. Within this framework, on average about one-third are from the government sector and the remaining two-thirds from a variety of fields including finance, industry, labour, education and the media. Participants are solely invited for their knowledge, experience and standing and with reference to the topics on the agenda.
All participants attend Bilderberg in a private and not in an official capacity.
Participants have agreed not to give interviews to the press during the meeting. In contacts with the news media after the conference it is an established rule that no attribution should be made to individual participants of what was discussed during the meeting."
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington DC 20036
Telephone: 202-797-6000
Fax: 202-797-6004
E-mail: brookinfo@brook.edu
Brookings Institution is a tax-exempt think tank created in 1916 as the Institute for Government Research by a group of business leaders and academics led by St. Louis timber and mining executive Robert Brookings, who later served on the War Industries Board. The IGR was founded to provide research and expertise to help restructure government agencies in accord with modern business methods, in order to promote administrative competence and government efficiency. During the Depression Brookings took on government and corporate research contracts. Renamed in 1927, the Brookings Institution established itself as a conservative think tank supported by industry and critical of the New Deal social programs, which were seen as replacing free enterprise with central authority.
After the second world war, Brookings supported the Marshall Plan and an active U.S. presence in the world, and by the 1960s had a reputation as a liberal think tank, but Brookings income flowed from Rockefeller and Ford Foundation grants and corporate contributions. By the mid-1980s, in keeping with the Democratic Party and other "liberal" institutions, Brookings positioned itself back in the "center" of the political spectrum again. In the 1980s Brookings studies called for government budget cutbacks, corporate competitiveness, and national security. In the 1990s Brookings studies promoted market-based incentives to replace regulation, increases in military spending, and "free" trade. In 1995, Michael Armacost, a U.S. State Department official under Reagan, became the president of Brookings.
Brookings' cultivation of its relationship with corporations is manifested in the Corporate Relations Program and in the "The Brookings Council," which was created in 1983 "to engage prominent business and community leaders in the most important issues facing society today. By interacting with leading experts and decision makers, Council members enhance their understanding of current and emerging policy questions and test their own ideas and convictions. The Council's 250 members provide valuable intellectual leadership to Brookings and contribute over $4 million annually." The benefits of Council membership are pro-rated based on the level of support, with an annual donation of $5,000 being the minimum. The Director's Circle members donate $10,000 or more, the President's Circle $25,000, and the Chairman's Circle donate $50,000 or more annually.
Brookings has a staff of over 200, including resident scholars. These scholars produce hundreds of books and reports and participate in dozens of conferences through numerous divisions and projects, including a Joint Center for Regulatory Studies with the American Enterprise Institute (see separate profile of AEI), the Center on Law, Economics and Politics, the Center on Social and Economic Dynamics, the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, and the Brown Center on Education Policy. Brookings' Presidential Appointee Initiative aims to help the nominees of the next administration, regardless of who is elected, and to "promote an agenda of pragmatic reforms."
Brookings board of trustees includes the corporate CEOs and directors of AT&T, Fremont Group (Bechtel), Booz Allen & Hamilton, Kissinger Associates, Human Genome Sciences, Inc., Johnson Capital Partners, State Farm, Aetna, Times Mirror, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, Heinz Family Philanthropies, ARCO, Chase Manhattan, USAirways, Bank of America, Levi Strauss, as well as Robert S. McNamara (former president of the World Bank) and James D. Wolfensohn (the current president of the World Bank). Brookings trustees also include directors and trustees of foundations, hospitals, and universities, including Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago Law School, Harvard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the University of Pennsylvania, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Brookings' revenues in 1999 were over $28 million; its net assets were $225 million. Over a third of its revenues come from foundations (William and Flora Hewlitt, Rockefeller), corporations, and individual donations; another third comes from endowment income.
Business Council
888 17th St NW # 506
Washington DC 20006
Telephone: 202-298-7650
Founded in 1933 by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to strengthen ties between the U.S. Department of Commerce and corporations, the Business Advisory Council (BAC) began as a quasi-official organization of 150 corporate executives. When U.S. President John Kennedy's first Secretary of Commerce resisted the organization's role, BAC severed its formal ties with the U.S. government. Kennedy soon repaired relations with the renamed Business Council by sending government officials to meet with the Council and corporate leaders across the U.S., and the federal government continued to rely on the Business Council for policy advice and for recommendations for government personnel. Meetings of the Council (attended by various government officials), were sometimes held at The Homestead, an old hotel in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
By the mid-1990s membership had grown to 299 current and former corporate CEOs, but the Council's role in promoting the corporate point of view in the corridors of power seems to have been eclipsed by new organizations such as the Business Roundtable and the Heritage Foundtaion.
The influence of the Business Council on elected officials is reflected in comments made by Jimmy Carter at its December 1977 meeting. Carter told the assembled business representatives that if they encountered government action "that unnecessarily encroaches on your own effectiveness, I hope you'll let either my Cabinet officers or me know, and I'll do the best I can to correct it... If you let me have those recommendations, I'll do the best I can to comply with your request."
Business Roundtable
1615 L Street NW, Suite 1100
Washington DC 20036
Telephone: 202-872-1260
www.brtable.org
The Business Roundtable is a lobbying group of more than 200 corporate CEOs, founded in 1972 by the CEOs of Alcoa, General Electric, U.S. Steel, and other major corporations. The Roundtable's premise is that "chief executives of major corporations should take an increased role in the continuing debates about public policy." Believing that "the basic interests of business closely parallel the interests of the American people, who are directly involved as consumers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers," the Business Roundtable has a single objective-"to promote policies that will lead to sustainable, non-inflationary, long-term growth in the U.S. economy." To promote growth, the United States "must create the right environment for American companies at home and abroad"-ranging from the privatization of social security, limits on corporate liability, and limits on public control of health care.
The BR was influential in the election of Ronald Reagan and in promoting Reagan's tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, and in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. In 1998, the Roundtable ranked as the seventh-largest lobbying organization in the U.S.; BR spent more than $11 million that year, and BR member corporations spend an estimated $100 million a year on lobbying Congress to lower taxes, to deregulate, to reduce corporate liability by limiting lawsuits against corporations, and to privatize Social Security, and to prevent reform of the health care system (see Appendices 1 and 2 for lists of corporations and lobbying firms).
The Roundtable's "single objective" is to promote policies that will lead to "sustainable, non-inflationary, long-term growth in the U.S. economy," and the Roundtable claims to advocate public policies that "foster vigorous economic growth; a dynamic global economy; and a well-trained and productive U.S. workforce essential for future competitiveness." But a Roundtable front group, USA*NAFTA, spent $10 million to help secure a free trade agreement which has cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs. (USA*NAFTA was allowed to set up an office in the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee conference room). Three years after NAFTA had been signed, the Roundtable (and the Clinton White House) urged patience, because "the full benefits of NAFTA will not be apparent for several years to come."
The stated purpose of the Roundtable's task force on international trade and investment is to "develop positions on trade and investment issues to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. business in international markets." The task force seeks to "implement trade education programs to increase general awareness and understanding of the importance of trade to U.S. economic growth, support efforts for new trade agreements and encourage Congressional renewal of 'Fast Track' negotiating authority, work to achieve normalized commercial relationship with China [and] support trade and investment policies that help raise American and global living standards."
Boeing CEO Phil Condit happens to serve as chairman of the task force. Perhaps the Roundtable's interest in the China trade is linked to Boeing's plan to sell $120 billion in aircraft to China over the next twenty years. In 1997-98, Boeing gave political candidates $1.65 million, and in early 2000, Condit offered further financial support to U.S. Congressional members who would vote to grant most favored nation (MFN) status to China. The Roundtable is spending $6 million on the MFN campaign and to have China admitted into the World Trade Organization.
Another member of the Roundtable's task force on international trade is Michael Bonsignore, CEO of Honeywell and chairman of the US-China Business Council. Honeywell sells half a billion dollars worth of instruments, metals, chemicals, and electronics to China every year, and the airplanes China buys from Boeing contain Honeywell instruments and parts. Bonsignore's testimony did not mention China's military interest in Boeing and Honeywell products-but he reiterated that Boeing and Honeywell (and the Business Roundtable, by extension) are "deeply committed" to the China market. It seems business as usual takes precedence over human rights, campaign finance ethics, military preparedness and engagement, and other considerations.
The centrality of the Business Roundtable was indicated in Part 1 of this report. The Roundtable's membership consists of the chief executive officers of more than 200 leading corporations. In the early 1990s, 79 of the Roundtable's directors held 206 board seats in 134 corporations, and held the following interlocks:
36 directors were also members of the Business Council
5 were in the Council on Foreign Relations
3 were in the Institute for International Economics
2 were in the Center for Strategic and International Studies
16 were on the Committee for Economic Development
7 were in the National Association of Manufacturers
7 were in the Council on Competitiveness
1 was part of the Brookings Institution
3 were in the American Enterprise Institute
In addition to the task force on international trade and investment mentioned above, the Roundtable has task forces on government regulation, civil justice reform, and the environment.
The task force on government regulation, headed by General Motors CEO John Smith, seeks to "improve the effectiveness of federal government regulatory processes" by requiring risk and cost analysis of all federal regulations, which would be based on "market incentives and performance standards."
The task force on "civil justice reform" is headed by State farm Insurance CEO Edward Rust and CSX Corporation CEO John Snow.
The environmental task force (headed by the CEO of Eastman Chemical) seeks to "reform" the Superfund for cleaning up toxic waste sites in the U.S., shape the recommendations of the World Trade Organization committee on trade and environment, and "lay the foundation for a new environmental management paradigm" that integrates economic considerations in the development of environmental policy.
Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington DC 20001
Telephone: 202-842-0200
Fax: 202-842-3490
The Cato Institute is a think tank dedicated to "promoting public policy based on individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace." It was founded in 1977 by petroleum millionaire and libertarian Charles Koch and Edward Crane of the Alliance Capital Management.
The Cato Institute promoted deregulation, private property, and privatization by publishing books, policy analyses, journals, articles, and radio programs on education, drugs, trade, immigration, and foreign policy, and the environment. Cato recently published a study titled How and Why to Privatize Federal Lands which proposed auctioning off all public lands over the next 20 to 40 years. The report was co-authored by the executive director of the Political Economy Research Center, Terry Anderson, who serves as an unofficial adviser on natural resource issues to presidential candidate George W. Bush.
Cato estimates that government regulation costs hundreds of billions of dollars, perhaps 10 percent of the total gross domestic product. Cato consistently attacks government regulation and intervention, whether it be in the form of taxes or social welfare. Cato's ideological consistency has led it to publish exposes of government subsidies of corporations. Cato estimated that tax breaks and other subsidies cost almost as much as social welfare programs, and pointed out that subsidies corrupted both democracy and business, that they foster an "incestuous relationship" between government and industry, that they strain the federal budget, and are "anti-consumer, anti-capitalist, and unconstitutional." Cato identified more than 100 government subsidies that cost $85 billion in 1985, and singled out Archer Daniels Midland as a particular recipient of wasteful subsidies.
Cato sponsors an annual monetary conference, which has been attended by Federal Reserve Board chairman Alan Greenspan and others from the regional Federal reserve Banks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, International Monetary Fund first deputy managing director Stanley Fischer, and Harvard professor Jeffrey Sachs, author of "shock therapy" economic restructuring programs.
Cato's Project on Global Economic Liberty pushes privatization, deregulation, and globalization, and says that "unilateral liberalization" is the most effective way to achieve economic growth. A new Cato book, Global Fortune: The Stumble and Rise of World Capitalism says "the critics of economic globalization are wrong. Capitalism has created a century of unprecedented prosperity and its spread is necessary to lift the world's poor out of poverty... What the world needs is more market reform, not a retreat from globalization."
Cato opposes laws discriminating against gays. It promotes the legalization of drugs, and opposes censorship of pornography. Cato's opposition to government intervention led it to oppose U.S. military action in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. But libertarian positions on various issues does not mean that the Cato Institute does not support corporate power. In the absence of civil authority, eliminating government regulation and government programs simply means that corporate power is unchecked.
The privatization of social security which Cato favors would mean a huge windfall for the stock market and the investment banks managing corporate stock and bond portfolios (Cato's study of Social Security privatization has been supported by funding from insurance company AIG, which manages privatized retirement systems).
Cato applauds the recent "reform" of welfare in the U.S., but its Facilitating Fraud: How SSDI Gives Benefits to the Able Bodied report "explains how the federal government is handing out Social Security disability payments to individuals who are not disabled and have no right to receive them."
Cato claims government recycling programs are encouraging waste, that the states should set their own pollution standards, and that Superfund and other toxic waste laws should be repealed.
Cato "adjunct scholar" Steven Milloy was the executive director of The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) in 1997 and 1998. TASSC membership includes more than 400 agricultural, manufacturing, oil, dairy, timber, paper and mining corporations and associations, including 3M, Amoco, Chevron, Dow Chemical, Exxon, General Motors, Lorillard Tobacco, the Louisiana Chemical Association, the National Pest Control Association, Occidental Petroleum, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Santa Fe Pacific Gold Corp., and W.R. Grace & Co-as well as the U.S. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The Cato Institute has published two of Milloy's books, Science Without Sense and Silencing Science. Milloy newspaper columns, which published by major corporate media, attack scientists studying the global climate change, accuse the Consumers Union of being biased towards environmental protection, and dismiss criticism of biotechnology as "little myths."
In 1998, Dick Cheney, former U.S. Defense Secretary and chairman of the petrochemical and military construction corporation Halliburton, told a Cato audience what they wanted to hear: that U.S. military and human rights sanctions against foreign governments were counterproductive because they affected the profits of U.S. corporations.
Cato employs 75 staff and has 55 adjunct scholars and 14 fellows, "many of whom are among the country's leading advocates of free markets and limited government."
Cato's budget was $12 million in 1998 and $13 million in 1999. Most of the funding comes from conservative foundations such as Sarah Scaife and John M. Olin.
Meetings
Unless otherwise noted, all events are held at Cato's Washington DC headquarters.
Cato Policy Forum on Welfare, Work, and Four Years of Change: Where Do We Go from Here? Aug 22, 2000.
Citizens for a Sound Economy
1250 H Street NW, Suite 700
Washington DC 20005
Telephone: 202-783-3870
Fax: 202-783-4687
www.cse.org"Americans working for free enterprise and limited government"
Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) was founded in 1984 by libertarians David and Charles Koch of Koch Industries, who have also founded other think tanks such as the Cato Institute. CSE received almost $5 million from various Koch foundations between 1986 and 1990, and David Koch and several Koch Industries employees serve as directors of CSE and the CSE Foundation.
Although CSE has recently received its funding from the tobacco and sugar industries and from major corporations such as General Electric (see chart below), CSE describes itself as "hundreds of thousands of grassroots citizens dedicated to (1) free markets and limited government, and (2) the highest level of personal involvement in public policy activism. Through recruitment, training, and political participation, CSE has become an army of activists... [who] continuously recruit, educate, and enable new members to participate effectively in public policy debates. CSE activists serve as local leaders who recruit others to join the fight for free-market policies." CSE has local chapters in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New, Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Directors of CSE and CSE Foundation:
Most of CSE's income ($4 million in 1991, over $15 million in 1998) comes from corporations and corporate foundations.
|
Funder |
Amount |
Year |
Purpose |
|
General Electric |
$500,000 |
1998 |
|
|
Publix Super Markets |
$500,000 |
1998 |
|
|
U.S. Sugar Corp. |
$280,000 |
1998 |
fight Everglades restoration |
|
Florida Crystals Corp. |
$280,000 |
1998 |
fight Everglades restoration |
|
Emerson Electric |
$200,000 |
1998 |
|
|
AlliedSignal |
$200,000 |
1998 |
|
|
Johnson & Johnson |
$200,000 |
1998 |
|
|
Sugar Cane Growers Coop of Florida |
$140,000 |
1998 |
fight Everglades restoration |
|
Hertz |
$25,000 |
1998 |
tort reform |
|
DaimlerChrysler |
$25,000 |
1998 |
tort reform |
|
Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group |
$10,000 |
1998 |
tort reform |
|
Huizenga Holdings |
$75,000 |
1998 |
tort reform |
|
Exxon |
$175,000 |
? |
global climate issues |
|
U.S. West |
$1,000,000 |
? |
telephone deregulation |
|
Philip Morris |
$1,000,000 |
? |
oppose cigarette taxes |
|
Microsoft |
$380,000 |
? |
limit federal budget for antitrust |
|
Sarah Scaife Foundation |
$200,000 |
1999 |
|
|
John M. Olin Foundation |
$270,000 |
1997-1999 |
for the work of the organization and a fellowship for James C. Miller III |
|
Charles G. Koch, David H. Koch and Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundations |
$4,800,000 |
1986-1990 |
founders and regular funders |
Conference Board
845 Third Ave
New York NY 10022
Telephone: 212-759-0900
The mission of the Conference Board is to be a "non-profit non-advocacy organization ... to improve the business enterprise system and to enhance the contribution of business to society."
The National Industrial Conference Board was "born out of a crisis in industry in 1916" when "declining public confidence in business and rising labor unrest had become severe threats to economic growth and stability" and a "bubbling political/industrial cauldron teemed with anarchists, socialists, progressives, liberals, conservatives, and splinter groups of all shades." The Board sought to "reduce tension between capital and labor and end the mayhem that was crippling industrial development." As a federation of eleven of the nation's most powerful industry associations, the Board "concluded that the time had arrived for an entirely new type of organization. Not another trade association. Not a propaganda machine. But a respected, not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization that would bring leaders together to find solutions to common problems and objectively examine major issues having an impact on business and society."
The Board's articulation of a broad public interest function is contradicted by its first committee, which was dedicated to publicity, not research, and by one the founders' minutes of an early meeting, which included the following: "The conference was called with the object of discussing constructively and comprehensively the causes of the increasing strife between employers and their employees and the effect of the rapidly multiplying amount of restrictive labor and social legislation on the conduct of business."
The focus on controlling regulation has been evident throughout the Board's history. At first the Board produced studies and recommendations for "industrial progress," which emphasized labor reform, but soon created committees on anti-trust legislation, taxation, public finance, and international issues. The Board currently works on government relations, tax reform, political action committees, and reform of social security and pension systems.
The Conference Board has been addressed by standing U.S. Presidents, including Kennedy, Johnson, and Ford, as well as by former or future Presidents Taft, Coolidge, Hoover, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush. Bill Clinton attended the 1991 meeting before announcing his candidacy for U.S. President.
A measure of the Board's influence is seen in U.S. President Johnson's implementation of Board recommendations for changes in how corporate tax depreciation was calculated. For example, the resulting changes to the tax code in 1965 alone resulted in $700 million in tax breaks to corporations.
The Board also helped mobilize for Word War I, by offering the Wilson administration "the cooperation and machinery of the Board in facilitating the government's work with the manufacturers of the country." Wilson's cabinet-level Council on National Defense responded by requesting Board assistance in assessing the labor situation and in promoting uninterrupted production of war materials. The Board advised that strikes and lockouts posed the greatest threat, and Wilson appointed Board members to the agency which set out the government's war-time labor policies.
After World War II, the President's Committee for Financing Foreign Trade, another corporate-dominated advisory board, asked the Conference Board to analyze the obstacles to making foreign investments.
In the 1950's, after "World War II had introduced humanity to the atom and business quickly saw potential for its peaceful application," the Conference Board held annual conferences to promote nuclear energy among industry and government agencies.
Such boosterism continues. In 1991, the Conference Board held a North American Free Trade Forum in Acapulco, Mexico, attended by business leaders and the chief trade officials from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
The Conference Board bills itself as "the leading business membership and research organization where you can gain cross-industry knowledge and share experiences & best practices with executives from more than 3,000 organizations in 67 countries. A not-for-profit, non-advocacy organization, The Conference Board provides objective business knowledge through the Consumer Confidence Index and the Leading Economic Indicators and our research, conferences, centers, and councils."
The Conference Board claims it is not a lobbying organization, just "the world's leading business membership and research organization." "Does The Conference Board lobby on any issues? No. The Conference Board is a non-partisan, non-advocacy organization." However, the Conference Board's Council of Public Affairs Executives (CPAE) sponsors meetings on "corporate public affairs and government relations" to provide a forum for corporate public affairs officers to "examine issues as they relate to their company's policies and procedures." Recent issues discussed included the politics of the federal budget surplus, the evolving politics of health care, the implications of tax reform, corporate PACs in a changing political environment, and Social Security and pension reform-all specific legislative issues on which millions are being spent to lobby elected officials.
The CPAE meets twice a year in Washington, DC. Attendance is restricted to the corporate public affairs officers. The 35 CPAE members pay annual membership dues of $3,000. Companies represented at recent meetings include Microsoft, Kmart, Unilever, Pfizer, Honeywell, General Mills, Dow Chemical, General Motors, Schering-Plough, UNUM, DuPont, UPS, Gannett, Deere & Company, Rolls-Royce, Citgo Petroleum, International Paper, Eastman Kodak, and Warner-Lambert.
Membership & Structure
Members include executives from more than 3,000 corporations from more than 60 nations. More than 150 CEOs address 12,000 meeting participants at the annual meeting. By the early 1990s, the Conference Board's budget exceeded $20 million.
Past chairmen of the Conference Board have included the heads of Westinghouse, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Proctor & Gamble, Standard Oil of California, Republic Steel, Chemical Trust Bank, Bechtel, General Electric, IBM, RCA, General Foods, Goodyear, and 3M. Some of these executives have also served as U.S. Cabinet secretaries or in other governmental or quasi-governmental positions. For example, oil executive Alexander Trowbridge served as Johnson's Secretary of Commerce before leading the Conference Board in the 1970s, and long-time Conference Board president John Sinclair had been president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Morris Tabaksblat, chairman of Reed Elsevier, former chairman of Unilever, and the vice-chair of the European Roundtable of Industrialists, is also vice-chair of the Conference Board.
Conference Board trustees include representatives of Bestfoods, Phillips Petroleum, JC
Penney, Excel, Texaco, Martha Stewart Living, Fidelity Management and Research, Goldman Sachs, British Airways, and Unisys.
The Conference Board's Councils are "groups of senior executives who meet regularly to share information, ideas, and insights on relevant business issues. They engage in candid, off-the-record discussions with peers in other companies, industries, and, in some cases, other countries. Each of our more than 100 Councils charts its own course: selecting members, setting meeting agendas, and serving the interests and needs of the group. Only executives in member companies of The Conference Board may participate."
The Conference Board's Centers are "executive forums that bring together management research, publications, councils, and conferences in the areas listed below. They are designed to keep you in front of the latest developments in management strategies and tactics in their areas of responsibility. Only executives in member companies of The Conference Board may participate." The Centers are the Global Center for Performance Excellence, the Global Corporate Governance Research Center, the Information Management Center, and the Townley Global Management Center for Environment, Health and Safety."
The Board opened Canadian offices in the 1950s and European offices in the 1970s, and as part of its effort to "help business in the global marketplace, works with organizations around the world, ranging from the Chambers of Commerce in Thailand and Hong Kong, the Confederation of Indian Industries, the Singapore Trade Development Board, the Irish Management Institute, the Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association, the Mexican Business Council for International Affairs, the Conference Board of Canada, Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management.
Council on Foreign Relations
Harold Pratt House, 58 East 68th Street, New York NY 10021
Telephone: 212-434-9400 Fax: 212-861-1789
1779 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC 20036
Telephone: 202-518-3400 Fax: 202-986-2984
The Council on Foreign Relations was founded in 1921 by "businessmen, bankers, and lawyers determined to keep the United States engaged in the world" and "to provide insights into international affairs and to develop new ideas for U.S. foreign policy, particularly national security and foreign economic policy. The CFR seeks to "cooperate with the government and all existing agencies and to bring them into constructive accord." The CFR's website claims that it is "is composed of men and women from all walks of international life and from all parts of America" but its membership is largely unchanged from its founders: white, male, and predominantly corporate in background and viewpoint.
During World War II the CFR, with Rockefeller Foundation funding, brought together corporate and media executives, government officials, and academics to strategize the national interests, war aims, and postwar plans of the United States. Five study groups were set up: Economic and Financial, Political, Armaments, Territorial, and Peace Aims, composed of government officials from the White House, the State and Treasury Departments, the Pentagon, and intelligence agencies, Wall Street bankers and attorneys, major industrialists, and selected representatives of the media.
Many of the CFR recommendations, which were kept secret until well after the war, were implemented by U.S. President Roosevelt and his Cabinet departments. The public position of the U.S. government called for freedom, equality, prosperity, and peace, but in private, government officials in the CFR study groups were considering the territories crucial to the U.S. economy in terms of markets and raw materials, and minimally defined the "Grand Area" as the Western Hemisphere, the UK and the remainder of the British Commonwealth and Empire, the Dutch East Indies, China, and Japan-though the ultimate goal would be global economic unification under U.S. leadership.
The CFR study groups analyzed the necessity for an economic recovery plan after the war which would finance the rebuilding of European markets for U.S. exports-which eventually became the Marshall Plan-and laid out plans for postwar institutions under U.S. and British control, including an international monetary fund to stabilize currencies, an international development bank to subsidize and insure corporate investments in undeveloped countries, and a judicial institution to maintain security ("settle disputes") in an age of rising nationalism among newly-independent colonies. In 1944 and 1945 these were established as the IMF, the World Bank, and the United Nations.
You may join the CFR only by invitation, and although the CFR has 3,600 members, they are "nearly all current and former senior U.S. government officials who deal with international matters; renowned scholars; and leaders of business, media, human rights, humanitarian, and other nongovernmental groups" (the current CFR officers and directors are listed in Appendix 7).
The CFR seeks to "find and nurture the next generation of foreign policy leaders and thinkers" by bringing "outstanding younger scholars" onto the Council staff through several fellowships. For example, in the mid-1990s, National Public Radio correspondent Anne Garrels spent two years in Russia as a "fellow" with the Council on Foreign Relations. The CFR also has a Fellow for National Security Studies position, which is named after the ultraconservative weapons manufacturer and philanthropist John M. Olin. The CFR conducts study groups and sponsors roundtables, and produces books, articles, and editorial pieces for mainstream newspapers, television, and radio.
In the late 1980s, the CFR, with the support of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, sponsored a Study Group on Privatization which explored the politics of and profit in helping countries around the world accelerate "loosening the ties that bind their enterprises to the apparatus of government." Members of the study group included consultants to the World Bank/IMF, United Nations Development Fund, U.S. Agency for International Development, and other multilateral institutions which promote privatization of public enterprises through foreign "aid," loans, and structural adjustment programs.
Several CFR task forces are established every year to address issues of "current and critical importance to U.S. foreign policy." Upon reaching a conclusion, a task force issues a report, and the CFR holds "informative meetings" for CFR members and the press. Recent task force reports included Promoting U.S. Economic Relations with Africa, Financing America's Leadership: Protecting American Interests and Promoting American Values, American National Interests and the United Nations, Lessons of the Mexican Peso Crisis, and Non-Lethal Technologies: Military Options and Technologies.
The Latin America Conference in May 2000 was addressed by Robert Rubin,
former U.S. Treasury Secretary and current chairman of Citigroup.
Lawrence H. Summers, U.S. Secretary of the State , and Peter G. Peterson,
investment banker and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, laid out "The Right
Priorities for International Development" in a meeting in March 2000.
Summers is a popular speaker at CFR, giving his opinions on "The Trials
and Tribulations of a World Economy" (March 1999) and on "Lessons Learned from
Mexico" and "The Importance of the International Financial Institutions of
U.S. International Economic Policy" (February 1997). Summers and IMF director
Michel Camdessus considered "the future international financial architecture."
U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, U.S. President Bill
Clinton, global investor George Soros, and World Bank president James
Wolfensohn discussed the global economy.
U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel Berger, U.S. Defense Secretary
William S. Cohen, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff evaluated future defense
policy for CFR audiences.
U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak,
and U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson addressed business opportunities in
the Middle East.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Microsoft chairman Bill
Gates, and Grameen "micro" bank founder Muhammad Yunus expanded on their
recent books.
Meetings
The CFR holds an annual National Conference, and seminars based on study groups and independent task forces in key cities around the country.
European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT)
Avenue Henri Jaspar 113
B-1060 Brussels
Telephone: +32 2 534 31 00
Fax: +32 2 534 73 48
E-mail: contact@ert.be
Founded in 1983 by 17 industrialists led by Pehr Gyllenhammar of Volvo and two European Commissioners, the purpose of the European Roundtable of Industrialists (ERT) is to unify Europe under one economic system, which will "strengthen Europe's economy and improve its global competitiveness. The ERT believes that the interests of European industry, its customers and the communities in which it operates, will be best served by promoting competition and competitiveness on a European scale. Europeans can only solve their problems by closer cooperation, by developing the Single Market into a steadily more integrated economic system, and by drawing on the full potential of the single market to stimulate investment, to increase production and to create new jobs."
ERT does not lobby on detailed legislation, but rather helps set the overall agenda for European unification. (Lobbying is the function of UNICE, with which ERT has a formal relationship; see profile of UNICE). Over the years ERT has pursued:
The legal unification that led to the 1986 Single Europe Act.
Development of European infrastructure in order to facilitate
industrialization and trade.
European monetary union through a single currency.
Pushing European "industrial competitiveness" by harmonizing laws to
reduce barriers to trade.
"Innovation" through deregulation, financial restructuring, and
educational "reforms" which ensure that corporations have access to a trained
and "flexible" labor market.
Bringing eastern and central Europe into the Union in ways that benefit
western European corporations.
ERT enjoys close access to the EC Commissioners, and the actions of the EC to unify Europe have closely followed ERT's recommendations. All of the agenda items listed above have been or are being implemented-to the benefit of ERT members.
For example, in 1991-93 ERT began running what it calls "management seminars" in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and ERT's Business Enlargement Councils are meeting with senior government officials in eastern and central Europe to direct those governments' spending and decision making towards projects that benefit corporations. ERT member corporations head the BEC for each country (Shell is the head of the BEC for Hungary, Solvay heads the BEC in Romania, and the BEC in Bulgaria is headed by Lyonnaise des Auix). Unilever has "divided central and eastern Europe with its "rival" Proctor & Gamble, and national companies in the region are going out of business as the multinational corporations take over.
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Another success for ERT has been the increase in public and private spending on European infrastructure to facilitate unification; spending is expected to total 400 billion euros by the year 2010. More than 150 projects have been completed or are underway, including the Channel Tunnel, a bridge between Denmark and Sweden, railroad and airport links, and 12,000 kilometers of new roads. ERT helped the European Commission plan the so-called Trans-European Networks (TENs), and pushes for more funding and faster completion. The European Union pressured the Swiss government into easing regulations and repudiating national referendums which called for the reduction of highway traffic.
ERT membership is "by invitation only and is personal rather than corporate," but all 47 members are the "chairmen and chief executives of large multinational companies, representing all sectors of industry, which have their headquarters in Europe and also significant manufacturing and technological presence worldwide." The member list as of June 2000 included the major corporations of Europe: Unilever, TotalFina, Fiat, Akzo Nobel, Royal Dutch/Shell, Norsk Hydro, Siemens, Bayer, Deutsche Telekom, BP Amoco, and Bertelsmann. Wisse Dekker of Philips and Helmut Maucher of Nestle have served as chairmen of ERT. Maucher has also served as head of the International Chamber of Commerce; see the profile of the ICC. The current chairman is Morris Tabaksblat of Reed Elsevier (formerly of Unilever). The current vice-chairmen are Gerhard Cromme of Friedrich Krupp and Morris Tabaksblat of Unilever.
ERT Members meet in plenary sessions twice a year to reach consensus on priorities, budgets, and the publication of ERT reports and proposals. The ERT Chairman, two vice-Chairmen and five other elected members form a Steering Committee which makes proposals to the Plenary Sessions. Working Groups on issues like education, employment, environment, competitiveness, the internal market, enlargement, taxation are chaired by ERT Members and staffed by experts from the ERT companies. ERT Members nominate press officers who help to coordinate ERT communications to national governments, EU institutions and the press.
The ERT "identifies the most important issues, analyses the critical factors and makes its views known to the political decision-makers at the national and European levels by means of reports, position papers and face-to-face discussions." At the European level, the ERT has contacts with the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. Every six months the ERT meets with the government that holds the EU presidency to discuss priorities. At the national level, each ERT member has "personal contacts with his own national government and parliament, business colleagues and industrial federations, other opinion-formers and the press. The ERT has close contacts with UNICE (Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe), the official representative body of the European business and industry world vis-ŕ-vis the European institutions."
ERT working groups include:
Accounting Standards (currently headed by Air Liquide)
Competitiveness (headed by Solvay)
Criminality against Companies (headed by Philips)
Enlargement (of the European economic union)
Environment (headed by Renault, and dealing with climate change and
sustainable development)
Foreign Economic Relations (headed by Peter Sutherland of GATT, BP Amoco,
Goldman Sachs)
Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Policy (headed by Saint-Gobain)
Pension Reform ("ERT believes that European integration and economic
competitiveness are hindered by current public pension programmes")
Taxation (headed by Unilever)
ERT's Competitiveness Advisory Group (CAG) is its institutional link to the European Commission (EC). Modeled after U.S. President Clinton's Competitiveness Council, the CAG was created in 1995. CAG consists of ERT members (that is, representatives of specific corporations), three trade union representatives, and government leaders, including Jean-Clause Paye, the former Secretary-General of the OECD. Through written reports and lobbying of policy-makers, CAG promotes ERT's agenda, including expansion of infrastructure, expansion into eastern and central Europe, deregulation, trade liberalization, and privatization, market-based environmental incentives rather than regulation, cost benefit analysis of social legislation, and re-education of workers to provide a flexible labor pool.
ERT chairman Morris Tabaksblat, in a speech at the European Business Summit in June 2000, explained that Europe is an "an insufficiently competitive environment, saddling companies with too high a cost base and too rigid rules," and this "has to be rectified-and fast." He warned that markets and new industries like biotechnology should not be regulated (except of course to protect intellectual property). He warned that "public acceptance issues could stifle the European biotechnology industry at birth." Political decision-making needs to be "streamlined" and develop "organically" as technology advances. "Frozen regulations and frozen attitudes will be swept aside by global markets."
Tabaksblat's regret was that "before they are, they can do immeasurable harm" by "limiting [business] options and "dissuading investment." He warned that in the United States, "nothing less than a new world is forming, as the so-called new economy takes root," and urged European business leaders to "shape up" and compete in order to "overtake the United States in a decade." Likewise, European policy-makers (the ones in government) needed to create "a business friendly environment, mainly by "eliminating red tape" and through "reform of the European social model."
Idealizing the accumulation of wealth, "from Venetian traders to the Dutch entrepreneurs of the Golden Age, from English mill owners to the German industrial dynasts," Tabaksblat declared that "there is nothing innately shameful about becoming rich, or emulating others who do, nothing un-European about it!" Better to "refashion the social conquests of the last new economy" by reforming the educational system in order to train and retrain the labor force for new jobs and by "injecting appreciation of the opportunities in change."
Tabaksblat pointed to the fact that more people in the U.S. (74 percent) have jobs than in Europe (61 percent), and urged that Europe catch up by getting more Europeans to work-including women, older workers, and young people. The fastest way to the future is to guarantee "adequate rates of return" and "easy access to markets and to capital." Change would be painful for many, and that "not least for unions specifically representing old trades and skills, for local communities where these trades have traditionally been carried out-this is difficult to digest; for Europe's policy-makers, however, it's time it was obvious." The "urgency" to win the "global game" by accelerating economic and social change is "out of your hands, as it is out of mine; timing is determined by the pace of change-in markets, in technologies, in expectations; we haven't the option to think some more about it-we've done that too long."
Heritage Foundation
214 Massachusetts Ave NE
Washington DC 20002
Telephone: 202-546-4400
Fax: 202-546-8328
E-mail: info@heritage.org
The Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973 with funding from ultraconservative sources including Scaife and Coors, is a think tank whose mission is "to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." Heritage produces articles, lectures, conferences, and briefings for Congress, Congressional staff, executive branch policymakers, the news media, and academia.
U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich called the Heritage Foundation "the most far-reaching conservative organization in the country in the war of ideas," and U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey said "when conservatives on Capitol Hill are looking to turn ideas into legislation, the first place they go is The Heritage Foundation." Two-thirds of the Heritage Foundation's 1981 policy recommendations to President Reagan were adopted.
During the first session of the 106th Congress, Heritage experts briefed 143 Representatives and 41 Senators on issues ranging from taxation to ballistic missile defense, and held 72 working group meetings and issue briefings for congressional staff. In addition, 32 Heritage experts testified before congressional committees during 1999.
During 1999, more than 180 articles written by Heritage's analysts and executives were published in leading U.S. newspapers. Heritage analysts appeared on more than 125 television and nearly twice as many radio programs.
The Heritage Foundation's Center for Media and Public Policy was created in 1999 to help conservatives use the media more effectively, and to "increase the media's understanding of conservatives, conservatism, and the conservative approach to problem-solving." Heritage contacts reporters, columnists, editorial writers, news directors and broadcast producers, and organizes "fact-finding trips" so journalists "can see how problems are being solved nationwide at the local community level." The Center's national advisory board includes William F. Buckley Jr., conservative journalists Mary Lou Forbes, Paul Greenberg, and Charles Krauthammer, and several professors of journalism.
Heritage Foundation programs in 1999 included:
Governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Gary Johnson of New Mexico on school
choice
Ohio Treasurer Kenneth Blackwell and former U.S. Rep. Jack Kemp on tax
reform
Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL) on private construction of public schools
Sen. Rick Santorum on the proper role of religion in politics and society
former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle discussed foreign policy and
national security
former U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger discussed America's Cold
War triumph
former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director
James Woolsey spoke in favor of missile defense.
Heritage urges rapid build-up of a sea- and space-based "Star Wars" missile system called for by the National Missile Defense Act of 1999, and calls for the U.S. to reject any restraint in the testing of nuclear missiles.
Heritage takes predictable corporate positions such as attacking OSHA health and safety regulations and calling for the abolishment of the U.S. Dept of Labor, because it is "presenting a barrier to the formation of firms and their ability to create jobs." Heritage wants to privatize social security, and says that states should have "flexibility" in their minimum wage, in order to help implement welfare reform, because the federal minimum wage is "a burdensome federal mandate that restricts [the states'] ability to help the poor."
Heritage attacks labor's "leftward tilt" and says that "an activist labor movement may be the most significant new force in American politics, but the agenda of labor's new leaders is radically different from that of the traditional labor movement. Curiously, much of this new agenda is unconnected with workplace issues, not generally supported among rank-and-file union members, and clearly outside the mainstream of American politics. In recent decades, organized labor has been transformed from a relatively centrist political force into a powerful lobby for liberal special interests and big government. Organized labor has decided to use its billions of dollars in dues revenue to defeat conservative Members of Congress, while also encouraging the Boy Scouts to admit homosexuals and atheists, offering financial contributions to political groups that promote abortion, and opposing welfare reform and a balanced budget."
The Heritage Foundation's board of trustees includes archconservatives from the Scaife and Coors families.
Richard M. Scaife is heir to the Mellon oil and banking fortune, and a
board member of the Hoover Institution, Pepperdine University, and several
family foundations, including the Sarah Scaife Foundation, The Allegheny
Foundation, and the Carthage Foundation-all of which are funders of the
Heritage Foundation.
Holland H. "Holly" Coors is a member of the Coors family, which was
instrumental in creating the Heritage Foundation, and serves on the board of
trustees of the Adolph Coors and Castle Rock Foundations.
Joseph Coors is an honorary trustee of Heritage.
Other Heritage trustees include a former advisor to the U.S. Export-Import
Bank, a former director of the U.S. Information Agency, a former Secretary of
the Navy, and the chairman of the conservative Amway Corporation, who also
served as chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Heritage claims its more than 200,000 members make it "the most broadly supported think tank in America." Heritage Foundation had income of $43 million in 1998; two-thirds of it from individuals, 26 percent from foundations, and 4 percent from corporations. Amway, Joseph Coors, Pfizer, John M. Olin Foundation, and the Sarah Scaife Foundation are recent funders of the Heritage Foundation's work.
Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
Telephone: 650-723-1754 or toll free: 1-877-HooverI
Fax: 650-723-1687
The Hoover Institution is a conservative think tank founded in 1919 as a center for advanced study in domestic and international affairs, supporting conservative scholars, sponsoring conferences, publishing books and articles, and producing television and radio programs.
The Hoover Institution says it "strives to conceive and disseminate ideas defining a free society, involving the study of politics, economics, and their interrelationships (that is, political economy) within the United States and other countries." The Hoover Institution describes its work in terms of the rule of law and property rights; promoting the idea of society based on individualism rather than classes; government performance in terms of accountability to society; economic growth and tax policy; and international rivalries and global cooperation with respect to security, trade and commerce, and the rule of law. The Hoover has a program devoted to the reform of public education, and addressing specific topics such as school curriculum, testing and standards, school finance reform, merit pay, the effects of teachers' unions, charter schools, and school choice.
Government officials from the U.S. and overseas are invited to address Hoover Institution scholars, staff, supporters, and members of the Stanford community. Hoover researchers and staff give Congressional testimony, and offer what Hoover calls "public service" by serving as advisors to the U.S. government. Hoover representatives also serve as missionaries overseas; the Hoover Library's deputy director, for example, serves on the editorial board of the International Democracy Foundation in Moscow.
Other Hoover scholars are former politicians. For example, former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich and former U.S. Secretary of State (and corporate insider) George Schultz are research fellows at Hoover. Other Hoover scholars include national security and Pentagon officials like William Perry, Richard Allen, and Bobby Inman. "Honorary Fellows" include Ronald Reagan, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Margaret Thatcher.
The Hoover invites journalists to spend time at the Hoover Institution, "studying public policy issues in a scholarly environment, conducting research on topics of their choice, and interacting with resident fellows and visiting scholars." The Media Fellows Program "has evolved over the past years to become a vital cog in the Institution's efforts to increase its impact on public policy discussion." More than twenty media fellows were in residence at Hoover in 1998, influencing major newspapers (Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post), magazines (Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, Reader's Digest), and television (ABC News, CNN's Inside Politics, and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer).
The Hoover Institution produces its own mass media as well; its "Uncommon Knowledge" weekly TV series, produced jointly with KTEH, a PBS affiliate station in San Jose, California, is broadcast to eighty stations covering fifty-seven television markets in twenty-nine states.
The Institution's annual budget is approximately $25 million. Like other ultraconservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Hudson Institute (see the separate profiles for these organizations), the Hoover Institution is funded by the ultraconservative foundations such as John M. Olin, Lilly, Smith Richardson, Carthage, and Scaife.
Forty percent of the Hoover budget comes from donations from individuals "and their related foundations and corporations." Another 45 percent of the budget comes from income from the Hoover's endowment funds, the market value of which exceeds $250 million. Another 15 percent of the budget comes from Stanford University, which donated $4 million in the 1990-91 academic year. The Hoover Institution is a non-profit organization using Stanford University's tax exempt status, while the Hoover Library claims to be an "entirely independent" institution, even though it is located on the Stanford campus and Stanford accounts for about two-thirds of the Library's budget.
Hoover's "board of overseers" includes the Archer Daniels Midland chairman Dwayne Andreas, Texas oilman Robert Bass, Seattle television personality Jean Enersen, Herbert Hoover III, David Packard of military and electronics giant Hewlitt-Packard, former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Mellon oil heir and ultraconservative philanthropist Richard M. Scaife, and free-market guru and former U.S. Treasury Secretary William E. Simon.
Hudson Institute
Indianapolis, Indiana
Telephone: 317-545-1000
Fax: 317-545-1384
The Hudson Institute is a conservative think tank founded in 1961 by Herman Kahn, Max Singer, and Oscar Ruebhausen. Under contract with government agencies ranging from the U.S. Departments of Defense and Justice to Wisconsin State to the City of Indianapolis, the Hudson Institute has published books and reports on everything from military strategy and national security, to agriculture and the environment, to trade, labor, and economic development, to health care, welfare, and education reform, but the primary focus is on "free" trade and enterprise and a strong military. (Founder Herman Kahn was a physicist and military strategist who suggested that nuclear war could be won). Hudson's annual awards have gone to such luminaries as Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Barry Goldwater, and Henry Kissinger.
Dennis T. Avery, author of Saving the Planet with Pesticides and Plastic, is the director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Food Issues. Avery "travels the country and the world preaching his gospel of biotechnology, pesticides, irradiation, factory farming and free trade." Avery claims organic farming takes up too much land and thus destroys wildlife habitat, that people who eat organic and natural foods are at a high risk for food poisoning. Avery's statements have appeared in the New York Times, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Investor's Business Daily, and the Journal of Commerce, and stories about "killer organic food" have appeared in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, under headlines such as, "Organic just means it's dirtier, more expensive," "Organic food--'It's eight times more likely to kill you" and "Organic food link to E. coli deaths." Avery receives a federal pension from his past employment by the U.S. Departments of State and Agriculture, and receives another $25,000 a year from the Hudson Institute. Hudson is funded by Monsanto, Du Pont, DowElanco, Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy, ConAgra, Cargill, Procter & Gamble, and other corporations.
Hudson employs more than seventy researchers and staff and maintains offices in Indianapolis, Washington DC, Montreal, and Brussels. In 1998 the Hudson Institute had a budget of $8 million, mostly from grants from conservative foundations such as Olin, Scaife, and Pew (the president of the Hudson Institute is Herbert London, John M. Olin Professor of Humanities at New York University). Hudson is a tax-exempt non-profit organization and thus prohibited from substantial lobbying activities.
International Chamber of Commerce
38 Cours Albert 1er, 75008 Paris, France
Telephone: +33 1 49 53 28 28
Fax: +33 1 49 53 28 59
USA Office
156 Fifth Avenue, Suite 417
New York, NY 10010, USA
Telephone: +1 212 206 1150
Fax: +1 212 633 6025
ICC Permanent Representative
56 rue du Stand
CH-1204 Geneva, Switzerland
Telephone: +41 22 810 40 80
Fax: +41 22 810 40 82
ICC, founded in 1919, has thousands of member corporations and industry associations from over 130 countries. ICC membership is open to corporations and companies in all sectors, national professional and sectoral associations, business and employers federations, law firms and consultancies, chambers of commerce, and individuals involved in international business. "By being part of ICC, members gain influence both at national and international level. ICC offers members many of the advantages of belonging to a prestigious club and the chance to forge business relationships at the highest level at exclusive ICC events."
ICC claims to be "the world business organization, the only representative body that speaks with authority on behalf of enterprises from all sectors in every part of the world." ICC committees in the "world's major capitals coordinate with their membership to address the concerns of the business community and to convey to their governments the business views formulated by ICC." The topics of concern to ICC range from advertising and marketing, arbitration, banking, business in society, business law, commercial crime, commercial practice, competition, customs, economic policy, e-commerce, energy, environment, extortion and bribery, financial services and insurance, intellectual property, taxation, telecommunications, trade and investment, and transport.
"ICC promotes an open international trade and investment system and the market economy. Its conviction that trade is a powerful force for peace and prosperity dates from the organization's origins early in the last century. The small group of far-sighted business leaders who founded ICC called themselves 'the merchants of peace'" and ICC "works for the liberalization of trade and investment within the multilateral trading system."
Making the rules, formal and informal
The ICC compares itself, with no apparent humor or irony, to an international government. "The ICC World Council is the equivalent of the general assembly of a major intergovernmental organization. The big difference is that the delegates are business executives and not government officials." As if proof that there is no need for another government, ICC states that "companies look to ICC as they meet the challenges of globalization and adjust to a world in which the state's role in the economy is no longer pre-eminent."
As long as it is ruling the world, ICC offers to act as judge and jury as well through its International Court of Arbitration, "the world's leading arbitral institution." The ICC shows others how to make the law as well, through its Institute of World Business Law, which offers courses and seminars to lawyers and corporate executives on everything from investment protection and negotiation of contracts to international arbitration.
"ICC members are at the forefront of business self-regulation. ICC is world leader in setting voluntary rules, standards and codes for the conduct of international trade that are accepted by all business sectors and observed in thousands of transactions every day." The rules include trading instruments such as Incoterms (ICC's standard commercial terms), the Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credit, and GUIDEC (a set of guidelines for ensuring trustworthy digital transactions over the Internet)."
ICC members "establish the business stance" on trade and investment policies on financial services, information technologies, telecommunications, marketing ethics, the environment, transportation, competition law and intellectual property.
Making the case for the global economy
"The great debate on globalization is in full swing. Can-or should-it be stopped? Is it pushing governments to the sidelines? Does it have a human face? Is it a threat to jobs? What are the benefits and what is the downside? ICC is convinced that the emergence of a global market economy, a process that has only just begun, will bring unprecedented prosperity to millions. But the right balance needs to be found between rules and freedom if the global economy is to realize its full potential. This is what this new section of the ICC web site is all about. We make the case for the global economy." ICC has made its case in a steady stream of articles, some of which can be read on the ICC website:
Globalization Holds the Key to Ending World Poverty.
Free Trade Helps Developing Countries Catch Up.
Growth is Good for the Poor.
Victims of the Refusal to Globalize.
Multinationals are a Positive Force.
Globalization Offers a Road Out of Poverty.
Trade is Often the Best Way to Improve the Environment.
Globalization is Irreversible and Not an Option.
Special relationships with the United Nations and WTO
"ICC's privileged links with major international organizations, including the UN and its specialized agencies and the World Trade Organization, allow the organization to effectively represent the interests of its members in international fora. ICC members prepare business positions for submission to international organizations and also, through ICC's global network of national committees, to governments"
"ICC works with the United Nations, other international organizations and regional bodies to ensure that they take the business viewpoint into consideration when making decisions affecting the private sector. It carries out collaborative projects with international organizations and provides business expertise to policy makers. ICC's permanent representatives on-site in Geneva and New York are responsible for relations with the UN and other international organizations."
"The United Nations: ICC is engaged in intensive dialogue with the United Nations and its Secretary General on how business expertise can help the UN to attain its economic objectives." "Within a year of the creation of the United Nations, ICC was granted consultative status at the highest level with the UN and its specialized agencies."
"ICC enjoys consultative status at the highest level with the United Nations and its agencies. It is the preferred partner of international and regional organizations whenever decisions have to be made on global issues of importance to business."
"The World Trade Organization: At its regular meetings with ambassadors to the World Trade Organization, ICC is promoting business ideas and objectives for achieving a successful new round of trade negotiations."
Leaders of the rich nations, advising the poor nations
"The Group of Seven industrial countries: Every year, the head of the host government of the G7 industrial countries confers with the ICC presidency on the eve of the summit. The consultation has proved to be a highly effective means of channeling business recommendations to the summit leaders."
"Guides to investment: In a joint project with UNCTAD, ICC enlisted support from 30 major companies in providing guidance to least developed countries on policies and practical steps to attract more foreign direct investment."
Investigating crime
ICC Commercial Crime Services investigates commercial crimes "committed on
land, at sea or in cyberspace... Unencumbered by bureaucracy, and at the request
of clients from the worlds of international finance, trade and transport, CCS
multidisciplinary staff are in a unique position to respond swiftly to alerts
anywhere in the world." "Investigations are carried out by CCS for
commercial clients with a view to recovering losses. In addition, victims of
fraudulent transactions are given help to extricate themselves and to minimize
damage. Back-up services provided by the commercial crimes division of ICC
include legal advice, support in litigation and expert testimony in courts of
law."
The ICC International Maritime Bureau "covers all types of fraud and
malpractice in trading and transport. In cases of maritime fraud or when ships
fall victim to pirate attacks, the bureau reacts swiftly using staff and
contacts worldwide. The bureau, which has observer status with Interpol, also
investigates suspicious cargo losses from containers during sea, road and rail
transits."
ICC's Commercial Crime Bureau investigates "financial frauds and suspected
scams to enable recoveries to be made. In conjunction with the bureau's work to
trace and recover assets, senior staff members can provide expert testimony at
court hearings anywhere in the world."
ICC has a Counterfeiting Intelligence Bureau which traces fake products back
from point of sale to place of manufacture. The ICC Cybercrime Unit identifies
criminal interference on corporate computer networks. ICC showcased an
"anti-piracy life-jacket," designed to protect sailors in case of pirate
attacks, at the London Dome in June 2000. ICC's Piracy Reporting Centre found a
hijacked tanker in South East Asian waters in June 2000, and now has a dedicated
website where ship owners can log-on and view the exact position of their
vessels at any time."
Membership & Structure
The ICC consists of 5,500 corporations and 1,700 organizations (mainly trade and industrial associations and chambers of commerce), nominated by national committees or groups in more than 60 countries. The governing body, the ICC Council, meets twice per year. An executive board of fifteen to twenty members is appointed by the ICC Council. The member-wide Congress meets every three years, with the 33rd meeting held in Budapest in May 2000.
Officers
ICC President Adnan Kassar is CEO of Fransabank Group, a leading finance and banking group, with offices in Beirut, Paris, Hong Kong and Budapest. Kassar is president of the Federation of Lebanese Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, permanent vice-chairman and former president of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries.
ICC vice-president Richard D. McCormick is a director of United Airlines, Wells Fargo, United Technologies, and Concept Five Technologies, former CEO of US West, and chairman of the US Council for International Business.
ICC member of the presidency Helmut O. Maucher is a former CEO and chairman of Nestlé, chairman of the Council on European Responsibilities (COEUR), and board member of the Industrial Investment Council (IIC). Maucher completed two years as ICC President in December 1998.
ICC secretary general Maria Livanos Cattaui was previously with the World Economic Forum in Geneva, and was responsible for the annual meeting in Davos.
Meetings
"ICC's programme of conferences and seminars is an essential channel for passing on the world business organization's expertise to a wider audience. ICC conferences are held in all parts of the world, many of them in collaboration with national committees." "ICC conferences are always highly topical and are often a platform for defining policies favourable to business."
"Every two years ICC holds its World Congress, always at a different venue and at the invitation of a national committee. These are major global business events that bring together business and public leaders to discuss issues that affect the environment in which they work."
"At the invitation of ICC Hungary, ICC's 33rd World Congress, "The New Europe in the World Economy" was held on 3-5 May 2000 in Budapest. With the full backing of the Hungarian government, the congress was inaugurated by President Arpad Göncz of Hungary and ICC President Adnan Kassar. Its main themes were financial strength, the global view, the world trade agenda, big issues for companies and EU enlargement. Representatives from business and governments worldwide attended the congress, with a particularly strong participation from countries in the region."
The U.S. Council on International Business is the U.S. affiliate of the ICC.
Even when the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) ran into
strong opposition in 1998, business groupings like the International Chamber of
Commerce (ICC) refused the OECD's proposals to include some rules for corporate
behaviour. The ICC has campaigned vigorously against binding regulations in
numerous multilateral environmental treaties, including those on climate change,
biodiversity and ozone-depleting chemicals (the Montreal Protocol), promoting
self-regulation instead. The U.S. Council on International Business (USCIB), the
U.S. affiliate of the ICC, fiercely resists corporate codes of conduct promoted
by trade unions and environmental and human rights organizations. In December
1998, the USCIB issued a statement saying that "such externally imposed codes
are unacceptable to the business community, are unworkable, and would be
ineffective in resolving labour and environmental problems." The USCIB calls the
demands made on business by NGOs "unrealistic, contradictory, and
counter-productive" and rejects "the notion that companies can be held
responsible for the overall behaviour and policies of their subcontractors and
suppliers throughout the supply chain." The USCIB furthermore rejects the
desirability of standardising corporate codes of conduct, and is vehemently
opposed to the independent auditing and verification of "these imposed codes,"
warning against "the hazards of accepting such an intrusion."
-- Corporate Europe Observer, Issue 5, October 1999
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Blvd Leopold III
1110 Brussels, Belgium
NATO was established as the Atlantic Alliance in 1949 as a defensive political and military alliance between ten European countries, the U.S., and Canada. The stated purpose of NATO is to provide for the common security of its members through economic, scientific, political, and military cooperation and consultation. NATO "peacekeeping" activities have increased in the 1990s.
Recent NATO military action in Yugoslavia is part of a long strategic (economic) battle to control the Balkans and the Central Asian resources that lie beyond. The current focus is to secure oil and gas pipeline routes from the oilfields of the Caspian Sea to the consumers of Europe. Multinational oil corporations are signing multibillion-dollar contracts with Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, while the U.S., European, and Russian governments are lobbying, bribing, fomenting civil wars, and conducting their own military operations in order to secure territory. Players include former British Energy Minister Tim Eggar (now CEO of the British corporation Monument Oil), former British Foreign Minister Malcolm Rifkind (now a director of British oil corporation Ramco), two former U.S. National Security Advisors, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft (now a director of AIOC), as well as former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker (oil corporation attorney), former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Lloyd Bentsen, former U.S. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney (then CEO of oil services corporation Halliburton, now candidate for U.S. Vice President), and former White House chief of staff John Sununu. Iran-Contra figure and former U.S. Air Force major general Richard Secord has been helping to train the Azerbaijani army.
Expanding the NATO Market for U.S. Weapons
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the Warsaw Pact in 1991, Western powers have been moving economically and militarily into the vacuum. The U.S. brings weapons as well as oil technology. The U.S. government accounts for more than a third of the world's military spending, and the U.S. exports three times more weapons than Russia, its nearest competitor:
Top exporters of major conventional weapons, 1995-1999
(data in 1990 U.S. $ million)
|
U.S. |
53,443 |
|
Russia |
14,628 |
|
France |
11,731 |
|
UK |
7,343 |
|
Germany |
6,085 |
|
Netherlands |
2,239 |
|
China |
2,212 |
|
Ukraine |
2,048 |
|
Italy |
1,965 |
|
Canada |
1,095 |
Weapons are manufactured by corporations, but much of the expense is funded by U.S. taxpayers. In addition, the U.S. government is a major promoter of the sale of weapons to other countries, and through its Departments of Defense, State, and Commerce, probably has more than 6,000 employees spending $400 million a year to promote weapons exports. The U.S. Commerce Department pushes arms exports by analyzing markets and finding buyers. U.S. Secretaries of Commerce promote U.S. weapons sales as part of their overseas trade missions. The Secretary of Defense makes explicit sales pitches to foreign governments and negotiates sales contracts on behalf of specific corporations such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The U.S. government displays U.S. weapons, offers test flights, and sends military personnel to air and weapons shows in Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The U.S. ambassadors, in cooperation with U.S. manufacturers, push sales of U.S. helicopters, planes, and missiles in the host countries.
Do you want to know the cause of war?
It is capitalism, greed, the dirty hunger for dollars.
Take away the capitalist and you will sweep war from the earth.
-- Henry Ford
NATO has been restructuring its policies to "meet the new security challenges" in Europe by adding new members from central and eastern Europe. The expansion of NATO is seen by U.S. weapons manufacturers as a huge new market for their products, and the U.S. government is doing everything it can to help sell weapons. The Aerospace Industries Association, a trade association of weapons manufacturers, estimates that $10 billion in military aircraft may be sold to new NATO members such as Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. RAND estimates total weapons sales to eastern and central Europe may reach $35 billion in the next decade.
Some of these weapons will be manufactured in Europe by partnerships between U.S. and European corporations. Boeing has acquired 35 percent of Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vochody. Textron bought 70 percent of Romanian helicopter manufacturer IAR Brasov. Lockheed Martin has agreed to build F-16 aircraft in partnership with the Polish manufacturer PZL Mielec. Some or all of the costs of these weapons is thus "offset" by U.S. corporate investments in European companies, by the resulting technology transfers, and by U.S. corporate promises to promote the country's exports in international markets. One analysis estimated that between U.S. government subsidies, and the transfer of U.S. jobs and sales overseas as part of European partnerships, the U.S. economy actually lost more than $1 billion on weapons sales in 1996.
Boeing, Raytheon, United Technologies, and TRW funded NATO's 50th Anniversary celebrations in Washington DC, and the host committee is made up of weapons corporation executives and former U.S. Commerce Department officials.
Endless money forms the sinews of war. -- Cicero, Philippics
The U.S. weapons industry routinely spends more than $40 million per year on lobbying government officials, and contributes more than $10 million to U.S. political candidates. Weapons industry lobbying organizations include the U.S. Committee on NATO (formerly the U.S. Committee to Expand NATO, the Aerospace Industries Association, the American League for Exports and Security Assistance (ALESA), and the Defense Policy Advisory Committee on Trade (DPACT), a quasi-official group providing "advice" to the U.S. government. Weapons lobbyists also work with ethnic lobbying organizations. For example, the U.S. Committee on NATO works with the Polish American Congress and the Hungarian American Foundation, which are also working to promote NATO expansion.
Under the spur of profit potential, powerful lobbies spring up
to argue
for even greater munitions expenditures. And the web of special interests grows.
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
One of the ways the U.S. government promotes weapons sales is by making loans to the countries buying weapons from U.S. corporations. In the 1990s, $9 billion in loans were written off for various political and economic reasons. But since 1995, the U.S. government has offered another $1.5 billion in grants, subsidized loans, and weapons giveaways to prospective NATO members, and arranges test flights of U.S. fighter aircraft for potential government customers.
Lockheed Martin received a $10 million grant from the Pentagon to coordinate a series of Air Sovereignty Operations Centers (ASOC) set up in Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania.
The U.S. Defense Export Loan Guarantee (DELG) program, created in 1995 after lobbying by U.S. weapons manufacturers, offers guaranteed loans on sales of U.S. military equipment to 39 countries, including 10 nations in East and Central Europe. The U.S. Defense Department's International and Commercial Programs office works with bankers and weapons industry executives to promote the sales.
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