CONFERENCES
The Council of Councils Moscow Regional Conference
December 12, 2012—December 13, 2012 On December 12-13, 2012, CFR convened the second Council of Councils regional conference: "Russia, Europe, and the Future of Global Governance."
Participants discussed four major themes: • Russia's G20 chairmanship• The eurozone crisis and global economy• Syria and the function of the UN Security Council• Cybersecurity and institutional reforms Council of Councils Russia Regional Conference Agenda (PDF)Conference Papers: Prospects for the Russian Chairmanship of the G20 (PDF)
The Council of Councils Singapore Regional Conference
October 30, 2012—October 31, 2012 On October 30-31, 2012, CFR convened the first Council of Councils regional conference: "Asia at the Crossroad: Regional Priorities for the Twenty First Century."
Participants discussed five major themes: • Stabilizing the global financial system• Advancing trade liberalization• Strengthening maritime security and freedom of navigation• Assessing the proliferation threat in Asia• The future of Asian security cooperation Rapporteur's Report for the Council of Councils Asia Regional Conference (PDF)
Council of Councils Asia Regional Conference Agenda (PDF)
The Council of Councils Inaugural Conference
March 12, 2012—March 13, 2012 CFR convened the inaugural Council of Councils conference on March 12-13 in Washington, DC. Participants tackled four major themes: • The overall state of global governance and multilateral cooperation• The status of the nuclear nonproliferation regime (with a focus on Iran)• The dollar's future as the world's reserve currency• The criteria for humanitarian intervention, in the wake of regime change in Libya, and an ongoing crisis in Syria.
Generally speaking, the authors would like to see the G20 emerge from merely a crisis committee to become a more enduring steering group for the global economy...
A more ruthless approach to who gets to participate at the top table and the number of formal presentations made during the meetings would be another important contribution to Russia’s aim of getting back to basics. (emphasis added)
"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." (This was an excellent prediction although it is slightly worse now.) -Warrantless wiretapping was approved for another five years, putting no restraints on what will be done by the NSA's new facility set to open in September, 2013
"In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities effectively exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason." (Fox CNN and Facebook?) - Social media and the control exercised by effectively privatizing free speech. The recent Facebook shutdown of political dissidents only hints at how this aggregation mechanism can become a tool of government suppression.
"Today we are again witnessing the emergence of transnational elites ... [Whose] ties cut across national boundaries ...It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook ... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty... Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with some consequent risk to the present relatively favorable American position." - Precisely what is sought after in Challenges to Global Governance 2013, as outlined above.
Interesting on page 57 "By the year 2018, technology will make available to the leaders of the major nations, a variety of techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised. One nation may attack a competitor covertly by bacteriological means, thoroughly weakening the population (though with a minimum of fatalities) before taking over with its own armed forces. Alternatively, techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm..." (Has the world already gone way beyond this?) --Yes it has: the "bare minimum of security forces" can be seen in drone warfare. One only needs to look at the battlefield of 2017, as created by General Atomic's next generation of Predator C Avenger designed specifically to reduce human numbers. Oh, and it will use a "death ray" -- also referred to on page 57. Weather modification and its use in warfare is explicitly covered in the 1996 Air Force report: Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather by 2025.