"What is at stake is more than one small country [Kuwait], it is a big idea - a new world order, where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law. Such is a world worthy of our struggle, and worthy of our children's future." According to various and sundry paranoid conspiracy theorists (PCTs), a one world government orchestrated by either Jews and Satanists or extra-terrestrials (the foci of the two major PCT sects) which will bring about the events prophecied in Revelation.

Organizations supposed variously to belong to this behind-the-scenes cabal of secret societies secretly in charge of everything include the Bavarian Illuminati, the Elders of Zion, Majesty Twelve, the Order of the Quest, The Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission, The Executive Committee of The Council on Foreign Relations, The PI-40 Committee, The Jason Group, The Club of Rome, The Group, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, The Open Friendly Secret Society, The Rosicrucians, The Brotherhood of the Dragon (or Snake), The Russell Trust, The Black Families (of Europe), Skull & Bones, the Scroll & Key, The Knights of Malta, The Freemasons (which regrettably tosses many conspiracy theorists in with Neo-Nazis in the legitimizing of anti-semitic forged documents), the CIA, FBI, NSA, WTO, APEC and pretty much any other organization which either operates domestically or multilaterally (read: pretty much any other organization) as well as the Astor, DuPont, Kennedy, Onassis, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Russell, Van Duyn, and Krupp families.

Make no mistake: many of those organizations don't have your best interests at heart. (Notably that handful of three- and four-letter acronyms near the end.) However, where their interests do lie is at some considerable distance from tattooing the mark of the beast upon the forehead of every living man, woman and child - most of them will settle for the redistribution of wealth into their pockets and interfering in the sovereignty of other nations to further that prior end.

Everything you really need to know about the New World Order is covered in Umberto Eco's excellent book Foucault's Pendulum.