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ROCKEFELLER INTERNATIONALISM ROCKEFELLER INTERNATIONALISM THE "PROUD INTERNATIONALIST": DAVID ROCKEFELLER (1915 — ) Towards "One World" David Rockefeller's "one world" vision for global economic interdependence involves US leadership in fostering collaboration with other nations rather than the implementation an imperialistic agenda. Part 4 learly, government positions have held few attractions for David Rockefeller. However, as an unofficial but uniquely powerful "ambassador without portfolio", David has been able to do "a lot of interesting things" without ever being called to account. Driving most of his activities over the past 40 years has been his vision of creating "a more integrated global political and economic structure— one world". To achieve this goal, David has supported a multidimensional strategy comprising US global leadership, the United Nations, multinational corporations, international economic integration, global and regional free trade, and global governance. The cornerstone of David's New World Order vision is US leadership. David traces his devotion to the concept to when he "returned from World War II believing that a new international architecture had to be erected and that the United States had a moral obligation to provide leadership to that effort".*' In the immediate post-war period, according to David, America "played a pivotal—and, for the most part, a highly constructive—role in the world".*? This role David has insisted on maintaining, irrespective of changes to the global political landscape and America's position in it. Despite America having lost much of its strength, "[w]e are still a major power in the world and, as such, have a responsibility we cannot shirk", David proclaimed in 1980 to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.** In fact, "we must restore our rightful role in the rting the strength of our currency and our economy", David argued in a at warned of America's economic decline.* For David, US leadership has never meant unilateralism or a crude imperialism to secure global dominance; instead, it had to be used to build a New World Order based on supranational institutions and economic interdependence. This was to be achieved through cooperation with other nations, either in a "trilateral partnership" with Western Europe and Japan (see Part 5) or under the tutelage of international organisations such as the UN. "With the dissolution of the Soviet Union," David told a Business Council for the United Nations (BCUN) gathering in 1994, "the opportunity for enlightened American leadership is, perhaps, even greater than it was in 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, or in 1945 when the Cold War began."* However, it was an "illusion" that "Americans by themselves have the wisdom to frame sound policy for a diverse community of nations", David claimed on the occasion of the CFR's 75th anniversary. That goal could only be achieved "through patient collaboration among leaders from many countries", with the US playing a key role in "fostering that collaboration".* And just as his brother Nelson argued 30 years before, David insists in Memoirs that the United States has no choice in the matter, for international circumstances are compelling and irresistible; America must lead: The United States cannot escape from its responsibilities. Today's world cries out for leadership, and our nation must provide it. In the twenty-first century there can be no place for isolationists; we must all be internationalists.” by Will Banyan © May 2003 But in asserting that this "internationalist" policy must be followed, David also makes this veiled criticism of the increasingly imperialistic agenda adopted by the administration of George W. Bush: The world has now become so inextricably intertwined that the United States can no longer go it alone, as some prominent politicians have urged that we should. We Email: banyan007@rediffmail.com NEXUS #25 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2003 www.nexusmagazine.com