On May 1, after more than a decade, the search for Osama bin Laden came to an end. It took patience and perseverance. And it took not only military prowess, but also intelligence that depended on a solid understanding of that region of the world and capabilities in a number of foreign languages that are not widely known in the United States.

In the latest installment of the New Atlanticist Podcast Series Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri interviews LTG David Huntoon, recently-appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, NY. Huntoon discusses how the Academy is adapting to a complex and rapidly-changing global environment, and the importance of instilling tomorrow's military leaders with a well-rounded education.

On August 19, the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center hosted a roundtable discussion with a group of Pakistani high school students visiting Washington, DC as part of the 2010 EDLINKS Pakistan-US Student Exchange.

America's current educational system, which emphasizes uniformity, conformity, and memorization is stifling the creation of the next generation of strategic thinkers. 

The blogosphere has had a bit of fun with a reports on the difficulty of the baccalauréat, the national qualification examination for entries into French universities.  The questions seem impossibly hard to some American eyes and raise questions about the comparative quality of the two school systems.

In March 2006, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer discussed the future of the Alliance with twenty-four university students from around the world at a session hosted by the Atlantic Council at American University. This private discussion with the Secretary General is part of the Office of Education’s wider outreach program for students.

In Fall 2005, the Council used a combination of virtual and interpersonal experiences to deepen ties among young people on both sides of the Atlantic.  From September 27 to October 2, thirty five delegates, including eleven students from around the United States, represented the Council at the 51st General Assembly of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) in Tallinn, Estonia.  From October 12 to 25, more than four hundred forty students from seventy countries participated in an international on-line conference, “Building a Safer World: The United Nations in the 21st century.”

In June 2005, the Atlantic Council of the United States, working closely with Allied Command Transformation, brought together twenty-five university-level students from the United States, Canada, and Europe for a conference on the future of military transformation.