Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars: Expanding NAFTA

By Daniel Taylor
Old-Thinker News
Jan. 19, 2008

Old-Thinker News reported on the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in August of 2007, documenting an overlooked conference held by the center in 2002 which was dedicated to the discussion of a "North American Consciousness". The North American Consciousness - a mindset favorable to the integration of Canada, Mexico, and the United States - was discussed as being a necessity if integration was to be successful.

Another document has been found, again from the WWICS website, that discusses the creation of a "continental homeland security," a "North American parliament," and a "continental democracy" [between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada]. The information covered in the document will be very familiar to those who have been following North American Union developments.

Background on the WWICS

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, established in 1968, functions as a roundtable for globalist policy making and discussion. The current director of the WWICS is Lee H. Hamilton, former vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission. Interestingly, the center enjoys the financial support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation. Members of the Council on Foreign Relations and other globalists such as Thomas F. McLarty - from Kissinger-McLarty Associates - often contribute to WWICS round table discussions and conferences.

NAFTA at 10

Throughout the "NAFTA at 10: Progress, Potential, and Precedents" document, numerous references to the European Union are made. Learning from the mistakes and successes of the EU are vital, the conference panelists say, in the creation of an expanded NAFTA and a North American Community (modeled around the European Union). Many of the panelists argue that deeper integration must take place, while some cite the need for global governance to effectively manage worldwide economic integration.

The NAFTA at 10 conference was held in 2002, ten years after the original NAFTA agreement was signed.

Below are some of the outstanding excerpts:

"Anthony DePalma argued that NAFTA was a historic milestone. However, while the big idea behind the European Community was clear" the prevention of another European war" he wondered aloud about the binding common interest behind NAFTA. He suggested that there was no similar master plan in the case of NAFTA. Rather, the three NAFTA partners were stumbling forward in the direction of community and towards the idea of the interrelationship between international and domestic policies. DePalma posed the question of the trade-off between sovereignty and "continental democracy."ť For example, while all three states submitted themselves to tribunals to resolve trade disputes, the tribunals themselves are not democratic in that they do not conform to norms of transparency. He posed the question of whether continental homeland security could be a new organizing idea around which NAFTA moves forward."

"Carlos Heredia argued that the NAFTA countries should pursue a strategy of convergence and called for steps to be taken with vision and leadership in the direction of a North American parliament and the development of institutions that will strengthen democracy."

"Alan S. Alexandroff then evaluated "Feasible Globalizations" by Dani Rodrik of Harvard University. Rodrik argued that global markets are unsustainable without global governance, and that if there is to be no governance, there is a need to reduce and slow ambitions for worldwide economic integration."

Model North American Parliament gatherings have already been taking place for student groups. As documented by Jerome Corsi, writing in World Net Daily,

A group supporting North American integration is preparing to hold its annual "North American Model Parliament" for students from the United States, Canada and Mexico… NAFI, according to the group’s website, is as a non-profit organization based in Montreal, dedicated to "address the issues raised by North American integration as well as identify new ideas and strategies to reinforce the North American region.

Economic integration and harmonization of rules and regulations is seen by many globalists as only a means to an end. L. Ronald Scheman, founder of the Pan American Development foundation and Senior Advisor to Henry Kissinger’s Kissinger McLarty Associates has a vision of a Greater America modeled around the European Union. Sheman writes in the globalist that he hopes to learn from EU architect Jean Monnet,

"To him, the strategy was clear. ‘This proposal [for a coal and steel community] has an essential political objective: to make a breach in the ramparts of national sovereignty, which will be narrow enough to secure consent” but deep enough to open the way toward the unity that is essential to peace [and we might add, for our purposes in the Americas, for development].’"

Jerome Corsi writes regarding the Transatlantic Common Market between the United States and the European Union that economic integration is seen by globalists as a steppingstone to greater objectives. Corsi cites an article carried in the Streit Council journal in 2007 by World Bank economist Domenec Ruiz Devesa which states,

"As understood by Jean Monnet," he continued, "economic integration must and will lead to political integration, since an integrated market requires common institutions producing common rules to govern it."

The march to total integration continues.