The Trilateral Commission and Global Governance: Informal Elite Diplomacy, 1972-82 (Cold War History) by Dino Knudsen

Author:Dino Knudsen [Knudsen, Dino]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781317392057
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-05-11T16:00:00+00:00

The oil crisis, the Third Window, and policy impact

The oil crisis shook the developed countries. For the TriCom, the moment constituted both a major crisis, as the trilateral regions became divided based on their different interests, and an opportunity to test its assumptions of advancing a trilateral community. Kohnstamm thought the world was facing the most serious situation since the war. “Unless the trilateral countries get together on this,” he said, “they will fall apart more generally, with serious international consequences and domestic strains in many countries.” Kohnstamm even worried about the prospect of “Popular Front governments all around the Mediterranean,” but he also saw opportunities. “If there ever was a moment when a Commission like ours could fill a crucial role,” he elaborated, “it is now.”45

The TriCom seized the opportunity and issued two reports on energy. The reports assumed that the era of cheap and abundant oil was over, and recommended developing new sources of energy. The reports anticipated a politicization of international economic relations and warned against destructive competition between the trilateral countries, which had to preserve their democratic institutions, but be ready to modify habits and lifestyles. The US, which was in a comparatively strong position compared to its trilateral partners, should not take refuge in a policy of self-sufficiency, and a whole range of concrete steps was to be taken to secure cooperation and adequate supplies of oil (conservation, sharing, new technology, etc.). The reports recommended that the trilateral countries in particular, and the oil consumers in general, should unite and approach OPEC in a cooperative fashion, and work to set up an international energy agency. Cooperation should not only deal with energy, but also with political problems such as the Arab–Israeli conflict to avoid future crisis.46

Although the poorest countries of the world had much lower energy consumption than the industrialized countries, they were severely hit by the oil crisis and did not have the same capacity to resist it. A third report on the oil crisis, OPEC, the Trilateral World, and the Developing Countries: New Arrangements for Cooperation, 1976–1980, included measures to prevent chaos and destabilization of international order. One of the problems for the developing countries was that the World Bank’s standard lending facility, the so-called “First Window,” and its fund for the poorest countries, the International Development Association, the so-called “Second Window,” could not meet the demands of the immediate crisis for several reasons. Thus the report advocated the establishment of a new lending facility, a “Third Window,” an interim measure providing emergency financing over the following years for the poorest countries.47

The Intermediate Financing Facility, or the Third Window, of the World Bank was eventually established. Negotiations in the bank began in early 1975 and concluded that summer. Before and during the official negotiations, the TriCom displayed an impressive diplomatic effort. In December 1973, meetings between the writers and selected Commissioners began. On March 18, 1974, the writers met at Brookings Institution to advance their work with the report. Gardner stressed that what

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