About the Atlantic Council

Within a few years of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, voluntary organizations emerged in the member countries of the Alliance to promote public understanding and support for the policies and institutions that would build collective security and peace. T­his international network of citizens’ associations was bound together formally in 1954 with the creation of the Atlantic Treaty Association.

In 1961, former Secretaries of State Dean Acheson and Christian Herter, with Will Clayton, William Foster, Theodore Achilles and other distinguished Americans, recommended the consolidation of the US citizens groups supporting the Atlantic Alliance into the Atlantic Council of the United States.

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The Atlantic Council produces cutting-edge research and analyses that reflect the organization’s nonpartisan approach to fulfilling its mission. The Council’s work reaffirms its credibility to inform policy choices and strategies that seek to build a more secure and prosperous world.

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The Atlantic Council strives to sustain an environment where individuals of varying backgrounds can collaborate as global change agents. We’re focused on recruiting capable, results-oriented colleagues who are committed to shaping the global future alongside partners and allies. We’re committed to providing merit-based and market-competitive opportunities among our team regarding compensation and promotions, and in fostering opportunities to advance and celebrate the Atlantic Council’s dynamic and principled culture.

Since its founding in 1961, the Atlantic Council’s mission has been inclusion in a fundamental sense: helping Americans understand that they are part of a broader international community.

The Atlantic Council has distinguished itself as an institution where Americans work collaboratively with our counterparts in allied and partner countries to develop ideas, propose solutions, and build a better world.

Then, as now, the organization was animated by different perspectives.

Today, the Atlantic Council cherishes its status as a international organization, where those who speak different languages, have different political points of view, and come from varied backgrounds draw on their experiences to enrich our work. We also recognize we can, must, and will do more.

We are committed to strengthening a culture that celebrates our differences and breaks down barriers. Only an organization that reflects the world around it can work to dismantle these barriers to progress and thus help shape a better, more just global future. 

We are taking steps to ensure that our community—from our talent pipeline and internship program to our leadership team, managers, senior fellows, external experts and partners, board of directors and advisory councils—embodies these commitments.

Our institution is developing a comprehensive strategy to ensure that the values that underpin the organization’s mission are expressed through our recruitment, content, convenings, talent management, and board members and partners.

The Atlantic Council has experienced unprecedented growth in the past decade, nurturing a high-performance culture of excellence and expertise, results-orientation and entrepreneurship, and collegiality and optimism. Our team members bring their values and passion to our mission. Accelerating this success requires the Council to ensure that each member of our community is valued, heard, and given the opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change.

Succeeding in our mission requires the hard work of building consensus and ensuring the voices of a range of partners. Just as importantly, it means engaging all segments of the public and preparing a new generation of leaders to act on the core conviction that brought the Atlantic Council into existence at an earlier time of historic tension and volatility: a better future for the world is out there—and we can only secure it by working together in unity.