What is the Trilateral Commission, and does it really exist?

It exists. The Trilateral Commission is a private organization, founded in 1973 at the initiative of David Rockefeller. It consists of over 300 private citizens from Europe, Japan, and North America to promote closer cooperation between these three areas.

The organization is often criticized by political activists and academics working in the social and political sciences, and is also mentioned in a number of conspiracy theories,

Some wellknown members include Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger.

In addition to what's been said already, it should be pointed out that the origin of the term - Trilateral - was that it not only drew its members from three blocks - the US, Japan, and Europe (primarily Germany) - it also divided the world into three spheres of influence, at least as far as financial/economic imperialism went: Japanese banks/financiers were allotted Asia, Germany's Europe and Africa, and the USA the Americas. Rockefeller interests expanded exponentially in Latin America since then, while they and their minions systematically discouraged from American businesses - especially entrepreneurs - from entering into ventures in the other two spheres of influence, and frustrated and blocked their efforts for years.

The ascendancy of China and India in Asia, and the Japanese financial crisis of the 90s, however, led to a breakdown of that concordat, and European and American finance - through their confederates in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mumbai, has been poaching in Japan's territory. It seems evident that they mean to replace Japan with China as the third leg in the tripod.

Contra, maS elcnU, it is NOT a "Secret Society" but a highly elitist and influentintial private association and thinktank created and directed by international financiers to serve their own interests.

Secret Societies don't publish their member and donor lists, and the TLC has no mystical "secret" initiation rites or arcane symbols intended to guide initiates into a new level of self-awareness.

The TLC is associated with globalization. The mission statement is "Close Trilateral cooperation in keeping the peace, in managing the world economy, in fostering economic redevelopment, and alleviating world poverty will improve the chances of a smooth, and peaceful evolution of the global system." There are a couple of interesting books which discuss the TLC: When Corporations Rule the World by David C Korten and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Legends by Brandon Toropov These two book espouse radically differing views of the organization. It does seem to be a pretty secretive organization, and is referred to as The Illuminati in some articles. Bush Sr. was a member, Caspar Weinberger, Jimmy Carter. Those who fear a global economy and government obviously oppose this organization which is composed of "the elite" intellectuals and leaders in Japan, the US and Europe. I checked out the TLC's website which provides only generalizations, but does list several publications available for purchase. See http://www.trilateral.org.
Zbigniew Brzezinski (a TLC member and a member of Carter's cabinet) stated that ‘without closer American-European-Japanese cooperation the major problems of today cannot be effectively tackled, and ... the active promotion of such trilateral cooperation must now become the central priority of US policy.’
(http://www.4rie.com/index.html#anchor200171)
It does seem clear they want to place their membership in positions of power to influence policy making.

A secret society, luciferian in nature, that promotes the New World Order (NWO) for globalization & mass slavery.

My 2 cents.
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/esp_sociopol_trilat04.htm