Australian American Leadership Dialogue

Australian American Leadership Dialogue
Formation	1992
Founder	Phil Scanlon
Headquarters	Australia
Membership	• Richard Armitage • Judith Hippler Bello • Sandra Yates • Richard Woolcott • Stephen Bollenbach • Dick Cheney • Patricia Turner • Warwick L. Smith • James Gorelick • David D. Hale • Gregory Paul Sheridan • Emery Severin • Robert D. Hormats • Phillip Lader • Phil Scanlan • Kevin Rudd • Franklin Lavin • Jim Leach • Irene Kwong Moss • David Kemp • Winston Lord • Paul London • Steve Howard • Jill Hickson • Kevin Nealer • Douglas Paal • Carolyn Hewsen • Nicholas Greiner • Karl Rove • Thomas Scneider • Ross Garnaut • Robert B. Zoellick • Nick Bolkus • Peter Cook • Paul Wolfowitz • Peter Hartcher • Michael J. Green

The Australian American Leadership Dialogue (AALD) is a private diplomatic initiative, which brings together Australian and American leaders from government, enterprise, media, education and the community in a very selective recruitment process of agents of influence in the elites, especially from the junior partner Australia.

Despite officially being private, it has heavy government involvement from both sides.

"The AALD is arguably the most valuable private sector foreign policy initiative ever undertaken in Australia" and "the most important of all non-government organisations dedicated to the strengthening of the Australia-US alliance in all its manifestations, civil, political and commercial" Supporters say that "it is a vital but largely invisible part of the alliance infrastructure" and "a semi-secret of the alliance" The AALD leadership gives high priority to binding leaders and young cadre from the Australian Labor Party to the alliance, thus leaving some of the right wing AALD participants dissatisfied with lack of pace in commitment to free trade and military cooperation.

History

AALD was founded in 1992 by former Coca-Cola Amatil executive and later Australian consul-general in New York, Phil Scanlon, Since then, leaders have gathered at AALD programs in various cities across the two nations to shape the direction of the bilateral relationship.

The first meeting was held in Washington DC on 11-13 June 1993 with 35 participants. Since then, it has grown and can include up to 150 participants. In total (between 1993 and 2008) an estimated 360 delegates have attended the meetings., around 60% Australian and 40% American.

Participants in 1993 founding meeting

Richard Armitage, Judith Hippler Bello, Sandra Yates, Richard Woolcott, Stephen Bollenback, Dick Cheney, Patricia Ann Turner, Warwick L. Smith, James Gorelick, David D. Hale, Gregory Paul Sheridan, Emery Severin, Robert D. Hormats, Phillip Lader, Phil Scanlan, Kevin Rudd, Franklin Lavin, Jim Leach, Irene Kwong Moss, David Kemp, Winston Lord, Paul London, Steve Howard, Jill Hickson, Kevin Nealer, Douglas Paal, Carolyn Hewsen, Nicholas Greiner, Karl Rove, Thomas Scneider, Ross Garnaut, Robert B. Zoellick, Nick Bolkusm, Peter Cook and Paul D. Wolfowitz.

 

Known members

18 of the 37 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Richard Armitage	"A sophisticated member of the top echelons of the U.S. government"
Judith Hippler Bello	Big Pharma lobbyist who was one of the founding members of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue
Dick Cheney	Neoconservative deep politician with close ties to the MICC. Vice President 2001-2009, under George W Bush.
Ross Garnaut
Jamie Gorelick
Michael J. Green
Nick Greiner	Premier of the Australian state of New South Wales from 1988 to 1992.
Peter Hartcher
Robert D. Hormats	Deep state connected vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates.
Frank Lavin	Deep state connected US diplomat who rotated between government jobs and large corporations. Attended 1993 founding meeting of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue.
Winston Lord	Former Bilderberg Steering committee, bonesman, CFR
Karl Rove	"That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality."
Kevin Rudd	Had his big break after attending first meeting of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue in 1993. Later became Prime Minister.
Phil Scanlan	Australian businessman that is a leader in many organizations that bring together business and politics.
Greg Sheridan	Influential Australian journalist & editor with the Rupert Murdoch-owned The Australian, with possible ties to the Integrity Initiative.
Paul Wolfowitz	An "architect" of the invasion of Iraq, World Bank President
Richard Woolcott	Australian public servant, diplomat, author and commentator. Informant to the United States, providing consular officials with information of internal government processes before the coup in 1975. Australian American Leadership Dialogue.
Robert Zoellick	World Bank president, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Multiple deep state connections

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