One of the most prominent positions in this field is the function of secretary-general of NATO. Of the fourteen secretary-generals of NATO four came from Dutch political positions: Dirk Stikker (1961-64), Joseph Luns (1971-84)i, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer (2004-09), and Mark Rutte (2024-present). The first three had been Minister of Foreign Affairs previously and Rutte was even for a long period Prime Minister in the Netherlands. Two of those four were members of more than one network.ii They all four are among the almost 1.200 entrances of names of members of five different associations of influential man (and since this century also women) in the five researched associations. They are mainly from economic and political, but also scientific and medical, elite positions.
The journalists of the Dutch critical mainstream publication Follow the Money investigated the associations named: De Tafelronde (Round table, established 1900), De Pijp (The Pipe, established 1926), De Schoorsteen (The Chimney, established during WWII), de Haagse Schouw (Mantelpiece, also during WWII) and Club Rotterdam (established in 1928).iii All five Clubs have a different history. But while each has it own characteristics, there are also similarities. They have extensive histories, an exclusive membership, and do not talk about its ongoings to outsiders, and Castle Wittenburg in Wassenaar is in the center of gravity.
The authors asked themselves at the start is Mark Rutte member of one of them? And got a positive answer on this. My question was focused on the importance for military and foreign policy. Club Rotterdam was for example established to stop a canal from Antwerp to the Rhine, because the Dutch harbour elite feared the canal would weaken their position vis-a-vis the Belgian harbour. Foreign relations and trade and industrial policy met here and created the birth of the club.
Kasja Olongren, the Minister of Defence (2022-2024) under Rutte is member of the Round Table. Her spokesperson compared this membership to that of a tennis, dinner or chess club. The membership is thus unimportant, and so she did not want to speak about it. The down playing of the importance of the networks, despite the kind of membership, the secrecy of membership and even of meeting places, sealed lips and the selection process is a common reaction. That may be juridically right, because they fall outside official control, but it can not be denied they are much more important than controlled and obliged to be be reported presents and additional jobs, scientist Willeke Slingerland remarked in Onder ons. And despite the change of culture in those associations, because of internationalisation of industrial circles, the confidentiality is an important reason to be member and enables talks and confer without press attention.
Ollongren was not the first Minister of Defence who was a member. Although her predecessors were in function half way the 20th century (Sim Visser (1959-1963), Hans de Koster (1971-1973), en Piet de Jong (secretary 1959-1963, and minister 1963-1967. De Jong was was until his dead in 2016 a figurehead for the Dutch submarine adepts). The Ministers of Foreign Affairs were in the majority besides the three who later became secretary general of NATO: Eelco Kleffens (1939-1945), Jan Herman van Roijen (1946), Dirk Uipko Stikker (1948-1951), en Ben Knapeniv (2021-2022). Alongside members of the government also the highest civil servants are noted as members, as are diplomats, military with high ranking position in NATO and the top of the armed forces, commanders of local bases, the President of the Dutch Military Court of Justice and a member of the commission to control on the intelligence and security services (CTIVD). Thus, the crème de la creme of the Dutch foreign and military policy.
Military companies like Thales Netherlands, Eurometaal, De Kruithoorn, Muiden Chemie etc. are missing in the five associations. Of Damen/De Schelde there are three major persons member via Club Rotterdam. Further more the Dutch military industry mostly does not produce complete major weapon systems (with some exceptions) and no ammunition, but mainly components and dual use technology. And like many military companies around the word produce partly military and partly for the civil market.v
While Fokker – and its current offshoots had or still have a considerable military production – it is mostly known for its civil planes. The Airspace company had a few high ranking persons in the associations.
Stork began as a producer of tools for the textile industry in the eastern part of the Netherlands and is the instigator of the Round Table (it followed the creation of the establishment of the Association of Dutch Entrepreneurs (Vereniging van Nederlandse Werkgevers, VNW) and a own newspaper to counter the support in society for the position of the labour movement by the same company.) Almost a century later Stork became one of the central companies in the early stages of JSF/F-35 production and while Fokker had a low membership in the Old Boys Associations Stork had a presence since the start, like Jan Hovers, who had a policy steering position at the time of the JSF-debates and was member of The Chimney.
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Engineer Woltjer pictured at the time of the controversial sub- marine order. May 1967. Original photo: Ary Groeneveld. |
Moreover there is a range of companies with high ranking employees in the associations whose names have a civil connotation, but have (had) a extensive military production or produced dual use or strategic products like AKZO, ASML, Draka, Hoogovens (now Tata Steel), Philips, Siemens, Ten Cate, Van der Giessen-de Noord, and Van Rietschoten & Houwens.vi
Follow the Money has also a database with topics for the meetings on its site. There are several on the conflict in the Middle/Near East and also foreign policy in general. There are several meetings on NATO by e.g. Ben Bot (1983 and who later became Minister of Foreign Affairs (2003-2007), and after that a controversial lobbyïst) and by Joseph Luns (1976, 1980) and Ben Knapen (1990). But the most pregnant is the introduction by Prince Bernard at a The Chimney meeting (1957, at the time husband of Queen Juliana) on production problems inside NATO. The Prince was involved in military acquisition talks, and was later forced not to wear his military uniform any longer, because of a punishment he received after the Lockheed/Northrop bribe scandal.
The importance of the secret Clubs is diminishing and they have problems to attract younger and active membership, the authors noticed. The elite seems to have less interest in these kind of contacts and is focussed more strictly on business opportunities and competition over such friendly and gentleman like clubs. A student concluded in her thesisvii that it shows the shift from the Rhineland to the the Anglo-Saxon model. Because of this the clubs become aged and less active; of the 1100 persons in the FTM-database only 39 are born in 1970 or after. In the list of 74 persons I selected on Military Industry, Foreign and Military Affairs, the youngest are Mark Rutte and Kasja Ollongren, both born in 1967, but both still with influential positions. Only the fact hat the last three Prime Ministers before the last PM Schoof, who recently failed (Kok, Balkenende and Rutte) were all member of the Round Table shows its importance.
Internally in the associations a policy is ongoing to give new life to the Secret Clubs. But it is only one of the many opportunities for close contact between persons in the Military Industrial Complex, which is well organised also because of the common trade missions, production cooperation, lobby, werkbezoeken etc. and where ties among industry Government and administration are well developed. But also the 19th Century gentleman clubs still play a role in strengthening contacts and disseminate information. To get a grip and control on these clubs, their membership and discussed topics should at least be public.
The online database was for me the most welcome part of the research efforts by the FTM journalists. The book gives the broad outlines. What kind of clubs are they, where do they come from, what do they do and mean. My area of interest, power politics, gets short shrift. But a search through the participants of the Old Boys & Girls Networks shows how many prominent people from the world of the foreign, military and military industrial world operate in them. The research project thus contributes to the research into the networks of the elite. Moreover, it is written in a pleasant style.
Notes:
i In the database of FTM Luns is portrayed as former minister of Foreign Affairs and member of Parliament. His role of secretary general of NATO is not mentioned.
ii These two are Stikker and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Double memberships of the five investigated associations make that 113 names are listed for a second, third or even an exceptional fourth time. For a list of individuals, they most be deducted, from the total. That means the entrances in the database cover almost 1.100 individual names. Of 21 persons it is known they have one or more other memberships, but the names of these are not mentioned.
iii In the text I will use the translation of the association to English.
iv Knapen was previously in function as editor-in-chief of major daily NRC-Handelsblad and member of the Round Table. A columnist of the paper wrote (October 18, 1990) that Israeli journalist inside and outside Israel applied self-censorship after the killing of 18 Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces on the the Temple Mount. After this Knapen was strongly advised by Round Table member, and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Ernst van der Beugel to prevent another “Auswitz revisited” and end the position of the columnist and if not “than shall I and like minded will do everything by other methods, along the lines available to me, to reach the same goal.” Van der Beugel wrote that he wanted to address this at the Round Table, but because Knapen was not present he wrote a letter. Knapen did what was asked and only six years later regarded this a rookie mistake.
v In the Defense News top 100 only ten produce 100 % military products and of the largest ten military producers four have a military revenues below 50 percent. https://people.defensenews.com/top-100/
vi Wrongly spelled Van Rietschoten & Kouwens in the database.
vii Thesis Laura Weijers, 'De veranderende betekenis van het informele netwerk van de Nederlandse bedrijfselite; Een kwalitatief verkennend onderzoek', (Erasmus University, Rotterdam, May 8, 2014), she mentions more names of similar associations. The writers of Follow the Money had also attention for other clubs, like the Vogeltjes Club (Little Birds Club), Abup etc.
For version in Dutch see here.
