The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961 by Christian Herter and William L. Clayton. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosperity. It is headquartered in Washington, DC, and is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association.
The Atlantic Council was founded with the stated mission of encouraging continued cooperation between North America and Europe following World War II. Its early work focused particularly on transatlantic economic cooperation and free trade, as well as maintaining connections among policymakers in Europe and North America. Its activities subsequently expanded beyond the transatlantic relationship to other regions and a broader range of foreign policy issues.
The Council describes itself as nonpartisan and is, by charter, independent of the United States government and NATO. It has received funding from foundations, corporations, individuals, and governments.
History The Atlantic Council was founded with the stated mission to encourage the continuation of cooperation between North America and Europe that began after World War II. In its early years, its work consisted largely of publishing policy papers and polling Europeans and Americans about their attitudes towards transatlantic and international cooperation. Its primary focus at that time was on economic issues—mainly encouraging free trade between the two continents, and to a lesser extent to the rest of the world—but it also did some work on political and environmental issues.
Although the Atlantic Council did publish policy papers and monographs, Melvin Small of Wayne State University wrote that, especially in its early years, the council's real strength lay in its connections to influential policymakers. The Council early on found a niche as "center for informal get-togethers" of leaders from both sides of the Atlantic, with members working to develop "networks of continuing communication".
The Atlantic Council also works outside Europe and the US. It was among the first organizations advocating for an increased Japanese presence in the international community. Its Asian programs have expanded since 2001 as a consequence of the war in Afghanistan leading to the opening of its South Asia Center and Program on Asia. Climate change, and coordinating with India and China on these issues, were also a factor in this development.
In February 2009, James L. Jones, then-chairman of the Atlantic Council, stepped down to serve as President Obama's new National Security Advisor and was succeeded by Senator Chuck Hagel. In addition, other Council members also left to serve the administration: Susan Rice as ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke as the Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, General Eric K. Shinseki as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and Anne-Marie Slaughter as Director of Policy Planning at the State Department. Four years later, Hagel stepped down to serve as US Secretary of Defense. Gen. Brent Scowcroft served as interim chairman of the organization's Board of Directors until January 2014, when former ambassador to China and governor of Utah Jon Huntsman Jr. was appointed.
They expanded their efforts to Central and South America in 2013 when the Atlantic Council launched the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, named for Adrienne Arsht, a philanthropist and businesswoman who helped fund its creation through a $5 million gift. The goal of the center was to improve relationships and economic ties between Latin American countries, North America and Europe. Their first director was Peter Schechter, who was chosen due to his extensive experience acting as a lead consultant on elections, polling, advertising, and media relations in the region. As of October 2023, the Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center at the Atlantic Council has increased its influence across the Latin American region. With a focus on achieving greater socioeconomic prosperity, the center has integrated political economy issues into policy-making and fostered collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders, including governments, companies, and multilateral institutions.
The Digital Forensic Research Lab was founded in 2016,The Atlantic Council (website) 'About-Meet our Team' Retrieved June 17, 2019. to study disinformation in open source environments and report on democratic processes. Facebook helped fund the think tank's project in 2018, after donating a significant but undisclosed sum that placed it among top donors to the organization, such as the government of Great Britain. The Atlantic Council also operates the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, which conducts research on cybersecurity, cyber conflict, emerging technologies, and international cyber policy. The initiative conducts research on issues including cloud security, offensive cyber capabilities, technology governance, cyber resilience, and organizes the annual Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. In 2017, Tom Bossert, previously a Nonresident Zurich Cyber Risk Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Cyber Security Initiative, was appointed Homeland Security Advisor to the Trump administration.
In 2019, the Atlantic Council entered into a partnership with the Hungary Foundation, a group funded by the Orbán government in Hungary. A series of strategy discussions was planned which would have included key US and Central Europe officials. In a meeting in Budapest that year, Atlantic Council members criticized Hungarian Foreign Ministry officials for limiting discussion of the state of democracy in Hungary. Following this, the Hungary Foundation canceled the project. In 2020, the Atlantic Council returned a grant from the Hungary Foundation and ended its relationship with the Foundation.
In a keynote event with ECB President Christine Lagarde, the Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center was launched in December 2020.Christine Lagarde headlines launch of Atlantic Council's GeoEconomics Center Retrieved December 1, 2020. The GeoEconomics Center develops data-driven programs, publications, and thought leadership at the nexus of economics, finance, and foreign policy. The Center aims to bridge the divide between these siloed sectors with the goal of helping shape a more resilient global economy. The center is organized around three pillars: the Future of Capitalism, the Future of Money, and the Economic Statecraft Initiative.The Atlantic Council GeoEconomics Center (website) Retrieved December 20, 2020. They produce cutting-edge data visualizations and research on a range of issues including digital currencies, China's economy, sanctions, and the future of the Bretton Woods system. The center has hosted a range of leading financial policymakers for major policy speeches including Brian Deese, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Janet Yellen, Gina Raimondo, Kristalina Georgieva, David Malpass, and many more.The Atlantic Council Events (webpage) Retrieved November 20, 2024.
In September 2021, the Global China Hub was founded to research three challenges posed by China's economic growth: China's growing influence on countries, global institutions, and democratic values; the global ramifications of political and economic change in Xi Jinping's China; and China's drive to dominate emerging technologies and the consequences for individual rights and privacy. As of June 2023, its senior director is David O. Shullman, who also leads the Atlantic Council's China-related work. During the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Atlantic Council was the think tank most often cited by the top three US newspapers in relation with that war. It supported the shipment of Western weapons to Ukraine as well as attacks on Russian cities to destroy their critical infrastructure, while rejecting any compromise with the Russian government.
Between 2025 and 2026, the Atlantic Council expanded several policy initiatives and research programs. In 2025, it launched the ReForge Commission, an initiative focused on defense industrial capacity, military production, and transatlantic security cooperation; the GeoTech Commission on Artificial Intelligence, focused on artificial intelligence policy and US competitiveness; and the N7 Research Institute, a policy center established through the Council's N7 Initiative in partnership with the Jeffrey M. Talpins Foundation to promote cooperation among the US, Israel, and Arab and Muslim-majority countries. The Council also launched the MENA Futures Lab within its Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and established the Daniel B. Poneman Chair for Nuclear Energy Policy. In 2026, the organization launched a task force on Reimagining European Defense and Innovation focused on European defense modernization and emerging technologies. In the same year, physician and public health expert Raj Panjabi joined the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense at the Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security as a commissioner.
Connections and funding Since its inception, the Atlantic Council has stated it is a nonpartisan institution, with members "from the moderate internationalist wings of both parties" in the United States. Despite its connections, the council is by charter independent of the US government and NATO, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. In September 2014, Eric Lipton reported in The New York Times that since 2008, the US organization had received donations from more than twenty-five foreign governments. He wrote that the Atlantic Council was one of a number of think tanks that received substantial overseas funds and conducted activities that "typically align with the foreign governments' agendas".
The Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East was established with a donation from Bahaa Hariri and its founding head was Michele Dunne. After Mohamed Morsi was removed as President of Egypt by the military in 2013, Dunne urged the United States to suspend military aid to Egypt and called Morsi's removal a "military coup". Bahaa Hariri complained to the Atlantic Council about Dunne's actions and four months later Dunne resigned her position. In 2014, the Atlantic Council produced a report promoting the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — a proposed trade-accommodation agreement between the European Union and the US — with the financial backing of FedEx, who were simultaneously lobbying Congress directly to decrease transatlantic tariffs.
In 2015 and 2016, the three largest donors, giving over US$1 million each, were US millionaire Adrienne Arsht (executive vice chair, Lebanese billionaire Bahaa Hariri (estranged brother of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri), and the United Arab Emirates. The Ukrainian oligarch-run Burisma Holdings donated $100,000 per year for three years to the Atlantic Council starting in 2016. The full list of financial sponsors includes many military, financial, and corporate concerns. The leading donors in 2018 were Facebook and the British government.Menn, Joseph (August 7, 2018). "U.S. think tank's tiny lab helps Facebook battle fake social media." Reuters website Retrieved June 17, 2019. According to the council, of its 2019 revenue, 14% (approximately $5.5 million) came from government donors excluding the US government. In 2021, the founding donor was Adrienne Arsht, and donors giving more than $1 million were the American Securities Foundation, Bahaa Hariri, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, Facebook, Goldman Sachs, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.