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THE MASS MEDIA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER By MARK PAUL ANDERSON Integrated Studies Project submitted to Dr. Gloria Filax in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts – Integrated Studies Athabasca, Alberta April 2011 Abstract As globalization marches on with its triumphs and disappointments, the phrase ‘New World Order’ has become increasingly popularized. Yet, the words symbolize very different hopes and fears for different people. To the Radical Right of the US, for decades the ‘New World Order’ has signified a tyrannical if not unholy plan of international bankers and other shadowy power elites to institute a world government. Most commonly, the figures alleged to be in the quest for this New World Order are depicted as residing in private policy discussion groups such as the Trilateral Commission. One aspect of the alleged plan often mentioned by the Radical Right is control of the mass media. While it is true that many media outlets are represented in the Trilateral Commission, in order to understand the actual effect of these relationships this study examines one link in particular, that of Trilateral Commission member, CEO and Chairman of The Washington Post Company, Donald E. Graham. This is done by comparing the action recommendations of the most recent Trilateral Commission Task Force Report, Engaging Iran and Building Peace in the Persian Gulf Region (2008) with the editorial positions of The Washington Post during the year 2008. While the study includes a historical genealogy of the New World Order that proves a conspiracy for world federation in which both the Trilateral Commission and The Washington Post are directly linked, the comparison of discourse shows rather that The Washington Post does not merely propagandize the position of the Trilateral Commission but presents and legitimizes a spectrum of scenarios amenable to a wider range of corporate elites, supporting instead a view of the mass media rather in accordance with Herman & Chomsky’s propaganda model. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ________________________________________________________________ 4 PART I -THE POLITICO-ECONOMIC MARKETPLACE __________________________________ 10 THE US POLICY MAKING PROCESS ______________________________________________ 10 THE MEDIA AND THE POLICY MAKING PROCESS ________________________________ 13 THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION IN THE POLITICO-ECONOMIC MARKETPLACE_______ 16 PUBLIC CHOICE THEORY _____________________________________________________ 24 PUBLIC CHOICE AND THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION____________________________ 26 TRILATERAL COMMISSION FOREIGN POLICY_____________________________________ 40 COMPLEX INTERDEPENDENCE_______________________________________________ 42 MANAGING INTERDEPENDENCE______________________________________________ 43 SUMMARY OF PART I__________________________________________________________ 44 PART II – CONTRADICTIONS BETWEEN THEORY AND PRACTICE_______________________ 45 STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS AND THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION ___________________ 45 A ‘NEOLIBERAL’ HEGEMONY?__________________________________________________ 47 PART III - A GENEALOGY OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER _______________________________ 52 PRE-WAR ATLANTICISM_______________________________________________________ 54 THE MILNER GROUP________________________________________________________ 54 JP MORGAN & CO.__________________________________________________________ 59 LEADING CLASS FRACTIONS AND CONFUSION OF THE RADICAL RIGHT____________ 60 RESISTING REGULATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZING DOMINANCE ________________ 63 POST-WAR ATLANTICISM – THE RISE OF ROCKEFELLER ___________________________ 68 TRILATERALISM _____________________________________________________________ 72 JOURNALISM, THE WASHINGTON POST AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER_______________ 74 PHILIP L. GRAHAM AND WISNER’S GANG _______________________________________ 79 PHIL GRAHAM VS JOE MCCARTHY – AN EPITOMIZING BATTLE_____________________ 81 THE POST IN THE TRILATERAL ERA ___________________________________________ 83 LESSONS FROM THE GENEALOGY ____________________________________________ 84 PART IV – THE STUDY___________________________________________________________ 87 TAKING AN ISSUE ____________________________________________________________ 87 CONTEXTUALIZATION OF IRAN ________________________________________________ 88 ENGAGING IRAN – A TRIANGLE PAPER ___________________________________________ 91 ACTION RECOMMENDATIONS _______________________________________________ 92 SANCTIONS _______________________________________________________________ 93 CENTRAL ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES ______________________________________ 94 EUROPE: THE TASKS OF PRACTICAL COOPERATION_____________________________ 95 COMMON TASKS ___________________________________________________________ 96 NEGOTIATING URANIUM ENRICHMENT________________________________________ 96 MIDDLE EAST AND REGIONAL SECURITY IN THE PERSIAN GULF___________________ 97 WHAT IRAN SHOULD CONSIDER _____________________________________________ 98 TANAKA’S CONTRIBUTION __________________________________________________ 98 THE WASHINGTON POST EDITORIALS __________________________________________ 99 METHODOLOGY ___________________________________________________________ 99 ARTICLES ‘ABOUT POLICY TOWARDS IRAN’ ___________________________________ 100 ARTICLES ‘ PARTIALLY ABOUT POLICY TOWARDS IRAN’ ________________________ 106 ARTICLES THAT ‘MENTION POLICY TOWARDS IRAN’ ___________________________ 109 DATA ANALYSIS ____________________________________________________________ 112 2 A CONVENIENT DEBATE ___________________________________________________ 112 SPECTRUM OF OPINIONS ___________________________________________________ 115 TRILATERALS ON THE MAINSTREAM LEFT ____________________________________ 117 IDEOLOGICAL CONSONANCE_______________________________________________ 120 FREE MARKET MASS MEDIA PRACTICES ______________________________________ 123 CONCLUSION_________________________________________________________________ 125 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. An Oligarchical Model of National Policy Making. ______________________________________ 12 Figure 2. Policy Clusters in the 1970's _____________________________________________________ 17 Figure 3. Policy Clusters in the 1980's. _____________________________________________________ 18 Figure 4. Policy Clusters in the 1990's. _____________________________________________________ 18 Figure 5. Twenty-Seven Key Players and Their Organizational Affiliations, 1996. ______________________ 23 Figure 6. Twenty-Seven Key Players and Their Organizational Affiliations, 2006. ______________________ 24 Figure 7. The Effect of Alternative Decision Rules _____________________________________________ 26 Figure 8. The Power Elite._______________________________________________________________ 27 Figure 9. A plaque commemorating the founding of the Club, the origins of the New World Order. __________ 55 Figure 10. Allen Dulles, right, with the Shah of Iran and Russell C. Leffingwell. Dulles ___________________ 71 Figure 11. A spectrum of opinions regarding how the US should engage Iran in the Post 2008. ___________ 116 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Media Representatives of the 2008 Trilateral Commission. _________________________________ 7 Table 2. Trilateral Commission Policy Discussion Group Interlocks. ________________________________ 19 Table 3. Multinational Corporate Interests of the Trilateral Commission. _____________________________ 28 Table 4. Banking and Financial Interests of the Trilateral Commission. ______________________________ 30 Table 5. 2008 Trilateral Commission with former North American government service. __________________ 31 Table 6. 2008 Trilateral Commission Intellectuals from the North American contingent. _________________ 34 Table 7. Trilateral Commission members appointed to the Barack Obama Administration. ________________ 38 Table 8. Rhodes Scholars of the 2008 North American contingent of the Trilateral Commission. ___________ 58 Table 9. Foundations represented in the Trilateral Commission. ___________________________________ 67 Table 10. Editorial contributors and their Institutional Affiliations. ________________________________ 121 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CFR - Council of Foreign Relations CIA - Central Intelligence Agency ExCom – The Trilateral Commission Executive Committee IAEA – International Atomic Energy Agency NIE – National Intelligence Estimate NPT- Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty NSA –National Security Advisor OSS = Office of Strategic Services RIIA = Royal Institute of International Affairs 3 INTRODUCTION Now we can see a new world coming into view. A world in which there is the very real prospect of a New World Order.1 President George H.W. Bush Address to US Congress 11 Sept 1990. The phrase ‘New World Order’ has a long and uneven history. One of the first to popularize the term was Woodrow Wilson, who used the three words in conjunction with his ideal vision of a world ideologically based on his famous fourteen points and politically integrated through the League of Nations. Another early figure helping to engrave the term in the popular consciousness was science fiction writer H.G. Wells. The New World Order (1940) however was not a far-fetched work of the imagination, but “simply [an attempt] to state the things we must do and the price we must pay for world peace if we really intend to achieve it.”2 Adding many of his own thoughts and criticisms, Wells envisioned a world built upon a political idea then espoused by the Rhodes

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