Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom

This article is part of the Propaganda Portal project of Spinwatch.

The Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom was formed in 1994 through a merger of the British Atlantic Committee and Peace Through NATO. It functions to support NATO and Western military interests. It is closely connected to TUCETU with whom it had a joint conference in 1998 and 1999.

By its own account on its website of 2006:

The Atlantic Council was formed in 1994 when the British Atlantic Committee and Peace Through NATO joined. Both these organisations had a long history of supporting the Alliance but in the post Cold War period it was felt that there was sufficient overlap to bring about a merger.

The Atlantic Council receives funds on an annual basis from Her Majesty's Government. However, the Council acts in a non-party political way. This is reflected in the fact that it numbers all three major party political leaders among its patrons. The Council has a President, many distinguished patrons and a management Board.

It stated:

The main thrust of the work of the Council is in schools. We believe that it is very important that students have some knowledge of security issues. These are looked at in the context of life in a democracy.

It is a member of the Atlantic Treaty Association.

Funding

In 1997, David Osler reported that the Atlantic Council received "over £100,000 a year from the Foreign Office, as well as payments from the Dulverton Trust."

People

Circa 2005

• Director: Alan Lee Williams OBE
• President: Lord Younger of Leckie
• Chairman: Right Honorable David Clark MP.
• Education Adviser: John Ayre
• Honorary Treasurer: Peter Robinson (Atlanticist)

December 2009

The following information is taken from the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom website as of December 2009:

• Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale - Chair. After a long and distinguished career in HM Diplomatic Service, Meta Ramsay was Foreign Policy Adviser to Rt Hon John Smith as Leader of the Labour Party and later special adviser to Rt Hon Jack Cunningham, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. She entered the Lords in 1996. Baroness Ramsay has been a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee as well as having been a Government Whip and Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords.

• Lord Patten of Wincanton - Co-President. John Patten was the Member of Parliament for Oxford and later Oxford West & Abingdon from 1979 to 1997 and was Secretary of State for Education from 1992 to 1994. He was raised to the Peerage in 1997.

• Lord Robertson of Port Ellen - Co-President. Lord Robertson, KT GCMG FRSA FRSE PC, represented Hamilton and later Hamilton South in Parliament for twenty-one years. Rising to become Secretary of State for Defence in 1997, he was appointed Secretary-General of NATO in 1999, aq post he held with great acclaim for five years.

• Gordon Brown – Patron: “NATO has emerged from the Cold War with a new sense of purpose, and I am keen that the UK is a driving force behind its continued development and strong leadership role; the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom has an important part to play in spreading this message”

• David Cameron - Patron: “I am delighted to be a Patron of the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom and am wholly supportive of both the Council and its mission”

• Nick Clegg - Patron: “I fully support the work of the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom in promoting and explaining the role of NATO and am delighted to act as Patron”

Members, Associate Members, and Observer Members of the Atlantic Treaty Association

Members of the Atlantic Treaty Association

Association Euro-Atlantique de Belgique | The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria | Atlantic Council of Canada | Jagello 2000 – Czech Euro-Atlantic Council | Atlantsammenslutningen | Estonian Atlantic Treaty Association (EATA) | Association Française pour la Communauté | Atlantique | Deutsche Atlantische Gesellschaft | Greek Association for the Atlantic and European | Cooperation | Hungarian Atlantic Council | Samtök um Vestraena Samvinnu | Comitato Atlantico Italiano | Latvian Transatlantic Organisation | Lithuanian Atlantic Treaty Association | Comité Atlantique du Luxembourg | Atlantische Commissie | Den Norske Atlanterhavskomite | Stowarzyszenie Euro-Atlantyckie | Commissão Portuguesa do Atlantico | Euro-Atlantic Council Romania – Casa NATO | Slovak Atlantic Commission | Euro-Atlantic Council of Slovenia | Asociacion Atlantica Española | Atlantic Council of Turkey | Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom | Atlantic Council of the United States

Associated Members of the Atlantic Treaty Association

Atlantic Council of Albania | Armenian Atlantic Association | Euro-Atlantic Association of Austria | Azerbaijan Atlantic Cooperation Association | Alliance for Security Bosnia & Herzegovina | Atlantic Council of Croatia | Atlantic Council of Finland | Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia | Euro-Atlantic Club of Georgia | Euro-Atlantic Association of Moldova | Euro-Atlantic Club of Montenegro | Association for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation | Atlantic Council of Serbia | Swedish Atlantic Council | Atlantic Council of Ukraine

Observer Members of the Atlantic Treaty Association

Atlantic Forum of Israel

See also: New Atlantic Initiative | European Atlantic Group | British Atlantic Committee

The previous Atlantic council website was at http://www.atlantic-council.org.uk/ Its contents are not available on the internet archive, having been blocked by the Atlantic council.

The website of the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom current as of December 2009 is at http://atlanticcounciluk.org/wp

"The Atlantic Council -- The Early Years", is a history of the early years of the Atlantic Council by Melvin Small, Professor, History Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI. It was prepared for NATO as a report related to a Research Fellowship, 1 June 1998, http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/96-98/small.pdf

Contact

The Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom, 130 City Road, London EC1V 2NW

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7251 6111