Atlantic Council

Jason Healey, director of the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative, argues that 2011 has seen the most vigorous effort on the part of the United States government to establish a coordinated set of cyber policies in nearly a decade: “We have been wandering in a policy desert for years and while we may not have reached an oasis, we have found a glass with some water in it.”

On December 15, 2011, the Atlantic Council partnered with PwC to host an inaugural high-level roundtable of leading business, government, and academic experts to analyze the global mismatch between skills and jobs, better known as the “skills gap,” and offer policy solutions. This issue brief summarizes the conclusions of that discussion. 

As public protests continue throughout Russia, 2012 will be a decisive year in Russia’s domestic politics, with uncertain implications for the future of the US-Russia Reset. Against the backdrop of a US-Russia relationship in flux, the Atlantic Council released the issue brief, “Rethinking the Russia Reset,” which makes recommendations for US and Russian policymakers to refocus the Reset on areas with concrete benefits that speak to real interests in both countries.

In a new collaboration, the Atlantic Council’s Michael S. Ansari Africa Center will be occasionally partnering with the Soufan Group, an international strategic consultancy, to make available short timely reports on African security issues as part of the latter’s “IntelBrief” series.

In the issue brief "The Strategic Rationale for Promoting Transatlantic Values in a Globalized World,” authors Jeff Lightfoot, deputy director of the Atlantic Council's International Security Program, and Simona Kordosova, assistant director, argue that the current and upcoming generation of leaders in the Atlantic community should leverage the historic achievements of the transatlantic partnership by putting the defense and advancement of Western values and ideals at the forefront of a more integrated policy of international engagement.

In the issue brief "The Transatlantic Bargain After 'the Pivot'," authors Barry Pavel, director of the Council's International Security Program, and Jeff Lightfoot, program deputy director, argue that as the United States reassesses its defense priorities towards the Indo-Pacific region amid cutbacks on defense spending, European partners in NATO must take on a larger responsibility for security within their own region and remain a close partner with the United States in providing security for the Middle East.

With Egypt in the midst of a political transition, this is a crucial time to rethink the US’s relationship with Egypt, argues Atlantic Council Director of the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East Michele Dunne in this policy brief for the Project on Middle East Democracy.

As world leaders prepare for the NATO Summit in Chicago this May, a new Atlantic Council report argues for renewed transatlantic leadership that will allow NATO to better address significant global issues with a unified voice—specifically in the greater Middle East and around cyber security—in order to remain relevant in today’s increasingly interconnected world.

With tensions increasing between Iran and the West, the Atlantic Council's Iran Task Force of the South Asia Center is releasing a new issue brief highlighting growing political turmoil within the country, and recommending steps the United States can take to boost Iranian political rights while containing advances toward nuclear weapons.

On November 16, 2011 the Atlantic Council, Thomson Reuters, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, and the Embassy of Canada hosted a day-long conference to look at the actions and tools Canada used to so successfully weather the financial crisis.