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". 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. 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. The Digital Forensic Research Lab was founded in 2016, 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 GeoEconomics Center was launched in December 2020 in a keynote event with ECB President
Christine Lagarde. 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. 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. 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. The Council 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. ==Connections and funding==