Thomas S. Foley - American Chairman of the Trilateral Commis

http://www.apfn.org/audio/thelaw.mp3

Thomas S. Foley

Thomas S. Foley is the North American Chairman of the Trilateral Commission and a Partner in the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Washington, DC.
http://www.trilateral.org/membship/bios/tf.htm

Prior to joining this firm, Mr. Foley represented Eastern Washington State's Fifth Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 1965-95. He served as the Democratic Leader from 1987 until his election as Speaker on June 6, 1989. From 1981-87, he served as the Democratic Whip, the number three position in the House Leadership. He is also former Chairman of both the House Democratic Caucus and the Democratic Study Group. During his years in Congress, Mr. Foley was a member of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs; the Committee on Agriculture, where he served as Chairman from 1975-80; and the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. As Democratic Leader, Mr. Foley served on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Committee on the Budget.

After serving in Congress, he was appointed by President Clinton in 1995 as Chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. In 1997 President Clinton nominated Mr. Foley to be the 26th United States Ambassador to Japan where he served until April, 2001.
Since returning to the United States, Mr. Foley has served on a number of corporate and government advisory boards and boards of directors, including the Special Commission to Investigate Security Procedures of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Advisory Policy Board of the Department of Defense.

Mr. Foley is a native of Spokane, Washington, and a graduate of the University of Washington and its School of Law. Prior to his election to Congress, he served as an assistant attorney general for the State of Washington and earlier as deputy prosecutor for Spokane County. He also served on the staff of the Senate Interior Committee as Special Counsel to the late Senator Henry M. Jackson.

Mr. Foley is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire. He has been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is a member of the French Legion of Honor. In 1995 he was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun, Paulownia Flowers by the Government of Japan.

He currently resides in Washington, DC, with his wife, Heather Strachan Foley.

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About the Organization

The Trilateral Commission was formed in 1973 by private citizens of Japan, Europe (European Union countries), and North America (United States and Canada) to foster closer cooperation among these core democratic industrialized areas of the world with shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system. Originally established for three years, our work has been renewed for successive triennia (three-year periods), most recently for a triennium to be completed in 2006.

When the first triennium of the Trilateral Commission was launched in 1973, the most immediate purpose was to draw together�at a time of considerable friction among governments�the highest level unofficial group possible to look together at the key common problems facing our three areas. At a deeper level, there was a sense that the United States was no longer in such a singular leadership position as it had been in earlier post-World War II years, and that a more shared form of leadership�including Europe and Japan in particular�would be needed for the international system to navigate successfully the major challenges of the coming years.

Two strong convictions guide our thinking for the 2004-2006 triennium. First, the Trilateral Commission remains as important as ever in helping our countries fulfill their shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system and, second, its framework needs to be widened to reflect broader changes in the world. Thus, the Japan Group has become a Pacific Asian Group, and Mexican members have been added to the North American Group. The European Group continues to widen in line with the enlargement of the EU. We are also continuing in this triennium our practice of inviting a number of participants from other key areas.

The �growing interdependence� that so impressed the founders of the Trilateral Commission in the early 1970s is deepening into �globalization.� The need for shared thinking and leadership by the Trilateral countries, who (along with the principal international organizations) remain the primary anchors of the wider international system, has not diminished but, if anything, intensified. At the same time, their leadership must change to take into account the dramatic transformation of the international system. As relations with other countries become more mature�and power more diffuse�the leadership tasks of the original Trilateral countries need to be carried out with others to an increasing extent.

The members of the Trilateral Commission are about 350 distinguished leaders in business, media, academia, public service (excluding current national Cabinet Ministers), labor unions, and other non-governmental organizations from the three regions. The regional Chairmen, Deputy Chairmen, and Directors constitute the leadership of the Trilateral Commission, along with an Executive Committee including about 40 other members.

The annual meeting of Trilateral Commission members rotates among the three regions. It was held in Seoul in 2003, Washington, D.C. in 2002 and London in 2001. The 2004 annual meeting was held in Warsaw. The agendas for these meetings have addressed a wide range of issues, an indication of how broadly we see the partnership among our countries. A publication on the annual meeting (Trialogue) draws together each year�s presentations.

The project work of the Trilateral Commission generally involves teams of authors from our three regions working together for a year or so on draft reports which are discussed in draft form in the annual meeting and then published. The authors typically consult with many others in the course of their work. The task force reports (Triangle Papers) to the Trilateral Commission have covered a wide range of topics.

The regional groups within the Trilateral Commission carry on some activities of their own. The European Group, with its secretariat based in Paris, has an annual weekend meeting each fall. The North American Group, with its secretariat based in Washington D.C. began North American regional meetings in 2002 and occasionally gathers with a special speaker for a dinner or luncheon event. The new Pacific Asian Group, with its secretariat based in Tokyo, began regional meetings in 2000. Each region carries on its own fund-raising to provide the financial support needed for the Trilateral Commission�s work.
http://www.trilateral.org/about.htm