In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
Question:
We usually speak of "power/authority" centers as being represented by the nation-state, citing, for example, American interests as the leading state with the most influence in international politics today. However, some believe that the true base of "power/authority" transcends the borders of the nation-state. They refer to secret societies of united forces with global "power/authority," such as organizations like the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, and the Council on Foreign Relations. All these forces may sometimes unite under general names such as the high elites (Illuminati), global bankers, and major financial and commercial institutions...
Some say that these centers of power hold no loyalty to any nation-state, even the United States of America. Instead, they are prepared to move beyond the United States into new power structures according to the "World Order Theory." This may result in startling shifts, including abandoning the dollar and ceasing oil trade in dollars in favor of a new currency based on a basket of commodities or a union of currencies.
The question is: To what extent is this true? If it is true, what is the party’s perspective regarding "power/authority" centers that transcend the borders of nation-states into a global authority?
Answer:
The capitalist principle did not work to abolish the national idea; rather, it recognized it and recognized the existing borders between states. Therefore, capitalist countries approved the independence of peoples in separate states within borders drawn in international treaties, including the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Wars occurred between these countries due to nationalistic motives. Thus, capitalist states adopted a national and patriotic character and maintained it based on the capitalist principle. They fought one another for national sovereignty and colonial interests, even though they are all based on the capitalist idea and carry it to others. They even defined the state incorrectly, saying it consists of authority, people, and a limited territory. Since the emergence of this principle, bloody wars have continued between these states. As for the European Union, it did not abolish the nation-state; rather, what happened is closer to cooperation between national entities, and it is far from being a single state. It is subject to periodic acute crises that almost destroy it. In fact, a number of its countries are threatened by division, as there are calls for separation in many of them, such as Belgium, Spain, Britain, and Italy. The federal system of government adopted by capitalist countries is a contributing factor to division, especially in countries composed of different nationalities. Federal America carries the same factors that assist in separation; this situation occurred in 1860, and the war between the Northern and Southern states lasted for five years. From here, the nation-state cannot be abolished among the proponents of capitalist thought. The capitalist principle fails to melt peoples and ethnicities into one crucible; rather, it fails to melt the different ethnicities living in a single state. Therefore, talk of abolishing the nation-state among proponents of the capitalist idea is far from reality. The owners of major capital in every country are part of their people; they work to support and strengthen their national states. In fact, they are the ones who lead them directly or indirectly. Therefore, we see many of those who hold positions in the state are either owners of capital themselves, have a relationship with them, or have worked in the management of major corporations.
As for the forces mentioned in the question and the claim that they transcend the nation-state into a global authority, this is not the case. Rather, they are institutions that work to serve the nation-state, particularly America. The matter is as follows:
a. Regarding the Bilderberg Club, it was founded on May 29, 1954, at the Bilderberg Hotel in Oosterbeek, Netherlands, and took its name from this location. It was established by some American capitalists such as David Rockefeller, joined by some Europeans who supported the policy of American support for Western Europe. Among them was Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, who was appointed as the first president of this club, along with John S. Coleman, president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, on the club's steering committee. It was mentioned that the goal of its establishment was to address the phenomenon of rising anti-American sentiment in Europe due to the Marshall Plan, through which Washington imposed its hegemony and superiority over Europe after World War II, exploiting its aid to Europe. The communists, as well as the Gaullists, played an important role in stirring these feelings. It was also mentioned that the goal of founding the club was to "adopt a plan to reduce this hostile phenomenon toward the United States, to strengthen the ties between it and Europe, to strengthen the Western bloc in the face of the Eastern and communist bloc, and to preserve Western civilization and the free economic capitalist model." The club's meetings were attended by many Western leaders, including monarchs, media figures, opinion-makers, and politicians from the conservative right and the democratic left.
This club, which has held its meetings once a year since its founding until today, is an American-founded club with American goals and American orientation and direction. However, there are those whose imagination has stretched in the style of movies, depicting it as a secret global government that runs the world—just as a Russian author wrote a book on this subject and sold millions of copies! But political thinkers and those who are politically aware realize the nature of this club, like some French writers who wrote: ("This club, 'Bilderberg Club,' composed of influential figures, is nothing but an influential pressure tool used by NATO to promote its interests... and to work on extending the influence of the United States of America"). America's power in this club became clear during its meeting held at the Palace of Versailles in France from May 15 to 18, 2003, and the disputes that occurred between the French and Americans when French President Chirac attended this meeting. The Americans protested against him because he opposed them in their invasion of Iraq and worked to insult him at the conference, which was attended by the most important figures of the American administration during the era of Bush Jr., including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, his deputy Paul Wolfowitz, member of the US Defense Policy Board Richard Perle, as well as former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, while US Secretary of State Colin Powell was on a European tour to mobilize support for his country's policy. A debate ignited over the large contracts awarded to American companies in Iraq, such as Bechtel and Halliburton. A European member mockingly asked, "Which European companies will get fat contracts like these?". Also discussed was the establishment of a European army, which the Americans objected to. A sharp debate took place between the Europeans and Americans over the necessity of establishing such an army, and in the end, America thwarted the idea of its establishment.
From here, it becomes clear that the Bilderberg Club is one of America's means to defend its policy of hegemony over Europe and to market American projects by working to convince the Europeans that its policy does not clash with theirs, but is for their benefit and the benefit of the West in general, at a time when it is planned for the interest of America and its projects in the first degree.
b. As for the Trilateral Commission, it was founded in 1973 by David Rockefeller and Zbigniew Brzezinski with another group of American thinkers, politicians, and academics. Leaders from the three regions—America, Western Europe, and Japan—participated in the club at its founding. Its goals are: "To enhance cooperation between these countries in service of their economic, political, and sovereign interests in the rest of the regions of the world; to develop solutions for outstanding and emerging problems between these countries; to exchange expertise and viewpoints; and to monitor the development of relations between the East and West." Thus, it is noted that the Americans founded this club to ensure American hegemony over Europe and Japan as well.
c. As for the major private Western financial and commercial institutions, including those owned by families such as the Rockefeller, Rothschild, or Bloomberg families, they work to achieve their interests within the policy of these states and in coordination with them. They hardly deviate from any part of it. We have seen Rockefeller's activity in founding the Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission to serve the hegemony of the American state over Europe, Japan, and the rest of the world's countries. These institutions fully realize that the state is what protects them, stands behind them, and ensures the realization of their interests and the reaping of profits. The capitalist state sees that companies are the ones that play a major role in bringing money and profits from abroad, and they are the ones that carry out projects and employ the workforce domestically. Thus, companies are considered as if they are government institutions that perform an important role in place of the state to serve its citizens and work for the benefit of the country, and the state considers them its tool in achieving colonial goals abroad. In the past, Britain entered India through the East India Company and then began colonizing it directly. Major private American financial institutions and companies play an effective role for the benefit of the American state. For example, the American financial institution Goldman Sachs played a certain role against the European Union for the benefit of America. It forged the reality of Greece's economic situation in 2001 to make it enter the Eurozone so that financial and economic problems would arise in this region to weaken or collapse it. The New York Times stated: "A single deal managed by Goldman Sachs in 2001 for $15 billion helped hide billions of dollars of Greece's debt from budget monitors at the European Union headquarters." (Al Jazeera Documentary, Wall Street Involved in Europe's Financial Crisis, February 14, 2010). This was done by categorizing these funds as a commercial deal rather than a loan. Thus, it showed that the level of debt did not exceed the level of national income or GDP, and that inflation did not increase above the acceptable European level. America's purpose was to weaken and disintegrate the European Union and hit the Euro so it would not compete with the dollar, in order to ensure the continuation of American hegemony over the Europeans, their economy, and the entire world. Thus, major private American companies and financial institutions play a specific role for the benefit of their country and in coordination with the American state. Germany expressed its annoyance at this and accused Greece of lying and forgery when the financial crisis exploded in Greece in 2010, which affected the cohesion of the Eurozone and Germany; the repercussions of the crisis are still ongoing.
d. Although the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) were established as international institutions, they have not been able to be independent institutions that impose their will on states like a global government. Rather, America has become the one with the primary word and influence in them, exploiting them to impose its policy on other countries. These international institutions imposed laws of privatization and American globalization, as well as market economy policies, on other countries. Through these institutions, America imposed its currency, the dollar, on the world and made it the currency by which the price of oil, gas, gold, and other minerals and commodities is valued, and made it the global exchange rate for currencies to control the world. Thus, the dollar became the primary currency in the world, and many countries' currencies were pegged to it. Likewise, the dollar was made the financial reserve for many countries. These are among the methods of the American state's control over the world.
Therefore, talk of a global government that manages the world and abolishes the nation-state is a fantasy. What controls the world are the major states, especially the "first state."
Capitalist states are dominated by capital owners. In every capitalist state, these individuals elect rulers to serve their interests without abolishing the state. They preserve their states so that they protect their interests and so their states control other countries of the world to increase their profits. The stronger their state is, the wider their trade and the greater their profits. However, a company or a financial institution cannot become a state because its goal is profit, and people would not accept it. It is not capable of forming state apparatuses, running them, and taking care of people's affairs. When capitalist states began the policy of privatization, they sold government institutions that provide services and interests to people to private companies, such as electricity, telephone, part of the railways, and highway routes between cities and states, and so on... These private companies that bought these interests need the executive apparatus—that is, the state. When people are unable to pay what they owe or some refuse to pay, the companies resort to the security and the judiciary in the state. If people rise and attack the company's institutions or protest against them, as happened in the "Occupy Wall Street" campaign, they resort to the state to protect them. They need legislation to be able to conduct their business and carry out their projects. When the financial crisis erupted in America and then in Europe, companies and financial institutions resorted to the state to save them by buying their troubled or worthless shares under what is called "injecting funds" that the state collected from ordinary people as taxes. Therefore, companies and financial institutions do not possess executive, judicial, or legislative power in capitalist states, which theoretically separate these powers. Rather, they work to influence these powers to protect themselves, to achieve their projects at home and abroad, to realize their dues, to reap their profits, and to save them when crises occur.
All institutions do not deviate in their work from serving the nation-states to which they belong, and they do not hesitate to engage in any action, even if it is morally or humanly degraded. What was revealed in the American spying scandal discloses this. America spied on other countries, headed by its allies, the European countries, and on their rulers, embassies, companies, and individuals, using its private electronic devices belonging to its intelligence agencies. Its companies that control the electronic network, such as the American companies Google and Yahoo, participate with it. This scandal reveals the reality of the struggle for national sovereignty between capitalist countries. America admitted this through its Secretary of State, John Kerry, in a press conference in London, saying: "In some cases, the spying of the National Security Agency went too far." (BBC, November 1, 2013). He claimed that: "These acts of espionage thwarted terrorist attacks." It is well known that they were spying on European leaders like Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, whose mobile phone they spied on for ten years. America does all this to preserve its national sovereignty and its interests in the world, to monitor every move of the European countries seeking to get rid of American hegemony, and to prevent the emergence of any power that could have international significance that competes with it or puts this hegemony at risk.
All of America's companies serve the nation-state, its culture, and its values. This became clear when a dispute broke out between China and the American Google company three years ago. The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said on March 23, 2010: "Unfortunately, Google seeks not only to expand its commercial activities in China but to promote American values, ideas, and culture." In fact, America promoted its private values, ideas, and culture in Europe, which shares its capitalist thought, in order to bring respect and appreciation for the American person and the American state so as to ensure American hegemony over Europe.
From here, it becomes clear that there is no such thing as secret societies that have global authority that abolishes the existence of nation-states based on the capitalist principle. The Bilderberg Club and the Trilateral Commission are clubs established by the Americans to ensure the continuation of their country's hegemony over the world. The major companies in America—financial, commercial, electronic, real estate, military-industrial, and other major industries—and the major men of finance, banking, and stock market speculation, all work for the benefit of their country. However, they influence the authorities of their country to preserve their financial gains and increase and expand them at home and abroad. They play a role abroad to serve their state's policy against other countries and to ensure the extension of its influence over these countries. Alongside this, America works to continue its military hegemony by establishing military bases in every country and forming strategic alliances with every country. It uses NATO to implement its policy and works to strengthen it under its leadership, while obstructing the establishment of a European army so that Europe does not escape from under its leadership. It carries out acts of espionage on others, even its allies, to monitor their movements. it works to continue its economic and financial hegemony by maintaining the dollar as a global currency and its continued dominance over global financial and commercial institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the WTO. It works to continue its political hegemony by its control over the United Nations, especially the Security Council, and its continued control over other countries by winning over agents and linking the ruling systems in other countries to it.
All of this contributes to preserving the American state, its national character, and its global position as the "first state" in the world. For this reason, it engaged in conflict with its "sisters"—the other colonial capitalist states from Britain and France to others—until it replaced them in their colonies and areas of influence. It has succeeded to a large extent in that and worked to remove those countries from the international position so that it remains alone as its master, the owner of the first and last word in the world, the leader of the Western world and proponents of capitalist thought, and its guardian. It carries the banner of war against anyone who carries another thought and wants it to take the place of its thought, or wants to establish a state upon it—any state, no matter how small. For this reason, it cannot tolerate the call to establish the Khilafah (Caliphate) state. Its research centers and strategic institutes are preparing studies and plans from today, even before the establishment of the Khilafah, to thwart any actions for its establishment, and indeed any ideas in this field... But they will realize sooner or later that the Khilafah is not like the present capitalist states that America was able to dominate with few losses. Rather, America will lose itself, and not just a few losses, in the face of the Khilafah, by the permission of Allah, the All-Powerful, the Almighty...
وَاللَّهُ غَالِبٌ عَلَى أَمْرِهِ وَلَكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ النَّاسِ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
"And Allah is predominant over His affair, but most of the people do not know." (Surah Yusuf [12]: 21)