Atlantic Council Events

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is in the United States this week, following recent visits to Egypt and the United Kingdom.

One year after his first meeting with President Trump, Mohammed bin Salman continues to advance dramatic social and economic change in the Kingdom. Under the Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia has loosened some restrictions on the guardianship code and sidelined the religious police, imposed a 5% VAT and increased prices of fuel and electricity, hosted concerts and reopened cinemas, and announced that women will be permitted to seek drivers’ licenses this summer.

All of these issues are likely to be on the agenda for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s meetings in the United States. One day after the Crown Prince meets with President Trump, Atlantic Council experts will assess the immediate results and forecast the expected outcomes for the duration of the US visit. What are the key priorities for the various parties? What are the dynamics at play, particularly amidst a transition of US national security leadership? On Wednesday, Nabeel Khoury, Dov Zakheim, and Rachel Brandenburg will discuss the top issues for the US-Saudi relationship, to include the war in Yemen, regional stability and GCC relations, and Saudi Vision 2030.

On January 31st, the Atlantic Council hosted a conversation with female thought leaders about the current state of the transatlantic relationship. In today’s turbulent political and security environment, the transatlantic alliance is at a critical crossroads. Pressing foreign policy and security challenges – from terrorism and Russian aggression to rising nationalism and waning confidence in institutions – have raised new questions about the future of the transatlantic alliance. This discussion features reflects on the past year, and discusses the future of NATO and US engagement in Europe, how the transatlantic partnership must adapt to today’s strategic environment, and the importance of female leadership in foreign policy and international security.

A conversation with:

Amb. Kristen Silverberg

Managing Director

Institute of International Finance;

Former US Ambassador to the European UnionMs. Julianne Smith

Senior Fellow and Director, Transatlantic Security Program

Center for a New American Security

Ms. Christine Wormuth 

Director, Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience

Atlantic Council;

Former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy

US Department of Defense

Moderated by:Ms. Sally Painter

Chief Operating Officer

Blue Star Strategies;

Senior Advisor, Future Europe Initiative

Atlantic Council

What are the short and long-term issues and potential fixes to election cybersecurity issues? Can paper ballots help restore faith in electronic voting? And how important is federal and state cooperation in cybersecurity policy formation?

In this episode, Jane Holl Lute, Atlantic Council board director and president and CEO of SICPA North America, and Anni Piiparinen, associate director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, discuss critical issues surrounding election cybersecurity in the lead-up to the 2018 mid-term election and beyond.

What does the Trump administration's strategy toward the Asia-Pacific mean for US-ROK relations? The December 12 forum, "Reimagining the US-Republic of Korea Partnership in the Trans-Pacific Century," explored priorities for the US-ROK security alliance and economic partnership.

This podcast features the keynote address "Meeting the Foreign Policy Challenges of 2017 and Beyond" delivered by Secretary of State Tillerson and introduced by H.E. Yoon-je Cho and The Hon. Stephen Hadley.

The forum also featured Ambassador Sihyung Lee, Dr. Young-kwan Yoon, The Hon. Paula Dobriansky, The Hon. Wilbur Ross, General James L. Jones, Jr., and Mr. Frederick Kempe.

What are the best practices for countering hybrid warfare? Where does responsibility lie in mitigating these threats?

On this episode of Channeling Brussels, Teri Schultz speaks with Hanna Smith about Finland's use of its history with Russia to help its partners address hybrid warfare concerns.

Hanna Smith is Director of Strategic Planning and Responses for the NATO-EU Center of Excellence in Helsinki.

The Transatlantic Forum on Strategic Communications and Digital Disinformation (StratCom) addressed the threat from hostile governments and radical groups who try to disrupt Western democracies through targeted digital disinformation campaigns. StratCom brought together key stakeholders, researchers, government officials, and members of civil society from the transatlantic community. It featured panels on: Social Media and Radicalization: The Challenge of ISIS and Other Non-State Actors; Straight Out of the Kremlin’s Toolkit: Strategies of State Actors; and Transatlantic Response to Disinformation: Paving a Way Forward.

StratCom took place on September 26, 2017.

On Wednesday August 9, 2017 the Atlantic Council held a conference call where the options and impacts of US sanctions to Venezuela were discussed. Speakers included: Francisco Monaldi, a fellow in Latin American Energy Policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, and David Mortlock, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Center. The discussion was moderated by Jason Marczak, director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council.

The title of Sir Peter Westmacott's new paper, Turkey's European Journey, does not indicate where he thinks the country stands on that path, whether he believes Ankara is still headed toward Europe or whether it has turned off that road permanently.

In this episode, host Teri Schultz speaks to Sir Peter Westmacott, a distinguished ambassadorial fellow with the Atlantic Council's Future Europe Initiative who has served as the United Kingdom's ambassador to France, Turkey, and the United States, about how he sees Turkey's current status under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Even as the pervasive and destructive capacity of cyberattacks becomes ever more evident with the alleged Russian meddling in European and American politics, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a former president of Estonia, marvels at the European Union’s under-performance in dealing with the threat.

In this episode, host Teri Schultz speaks to former Estonian President Toomas Ilves about Estonia's internet adaptability,  "Web War 1," and Russia's interference in the European political space.

Bearing a title that obligates him to manage evolving security threats, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges Sorin Ducaru has his hands more than full.  With the threat landscape against the alliance changing constantly in unpredictable ways, many of them breaking new terrain in warfare, Ducaru and his staff have to be prescient, agile, and humble about their abilities to predict what's next.

In this episode, host Teri Schultz speaks to NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges Sorin Ducaru about how the alliance is approaching all its new threats and adapting its mindset in some surprising ways.