Atlantic Partnership

An elite networking group set up to foster closer relations between the US and Europe, though its main impetus in Europe seems to have come from pro US forces in the UK including those with close links to NATO and other Atlanticist groups.
According to its own account:
:Atlantic Partnership is a bipartisan initiative that aims to foster debate about the relationship between America and Europe while promoting the benefits of a strong and stable Atlantic community of nations.
:Founded by leader of the Conservative Party Michael Howard in 2001, AP seeks to influence the transatlantic debate through sought-after breakfast meetings, occasional conferences and the media activities of our impressive stable of chairmen, vice-chairmen, patrons and panellists.
:AP operates in Europe as the Atlantic Education Project, a registered charity, and in the United States as Friends of Atlantic Partnership, a 501(c)(3) organisation.
==Aims and Objectives==
According to its website its aims and objectives include:
:Although we can hope the worst is now over, we have to remain vigilant. Atlantic Partnership’s role is to argue the case for setting major policy decisions in the context of their impact on transatlantic relations. That should apply as much to the way America pursues the global war against terrorism as to the European Union’s ambition to build stronger, Europe-wide institutions. Indeed purposeful strengthening of the transatlantic relationship ought to be a positive goal which weighs heavily with the decision-takers. After all the unity of the ‘West’ has been the foundation for most of what our nations have achieved over the past half-century. Now we have to build on the foundations, not undermine them.
:Atlantic Partnership will continue to make this case vigorously, through its influential network, through its sought-after breakfast meetings and through the writings and speeches of its panellists. We do not aspire to become a ponderous institution but will remain a lively and nimble ginger-group promoting what continues to be the world’s most powerful and fruitful community of nations, brought together in the transatlantic relationship.
By its own account the Partnership is a policy planning grouping:
* We have formed a high level network of high profile opinion formers on both sides of the Atlantic who are willing to use their influence to further the European American relationship – they are our Atlantic Partnership panel, our Vice Chairmen and Patrons.
* We identify issues of concern and activate opinion formers.
* We host high level breakfast meetings giving major figures the opportunity to air their views to a select group of leading decision makers and opinion formers. The breakfasts now take place in London, Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Madrid, New York and Washington DC. We intend to extend them to Hamburg and Rome.
* We ‘drip feed’ the national and international press with articles and interviews promoting the cause of the partnership, with the aim of developing a defined profile in the media in the longer term.
* We aim to contribute to programmes on the electronic media bringing attention to the values of the partnership and the importance of not allowing particular points of friction to undermine it.
* We monitor issues relating to the relationship from both sides of the Atlantic. Atlantic Partnership’s website contains keynote articles and speeches.
* We aim to ensure that supporters are fully briefed on the issues and current debates through a regular newsletter as well as regular publications of articles and speeches written by our panellists.
* We have a website to keep supporters informed of the work of the partnership.
* We have offices in London and Washington, DC.
* We are establishing ‘cells’ of Atlantic Partnership supporters elsewhere in Europe, namely Paris, Berlin and Rome and Madrid.
* We operate as a central point from which supporters of the partnership can network with each other.
==Executive Committee==
*Michael Howard QC MP - President and founding chairman 
*Lord Powell of Bayswater - Chairman 
*Henry J. Hyde - Vice Chairman, USA 
*Tom Lantos - Vice Chairman, USA 
*Pierre Lellouche MP - Vice Chairman, France 
*Francois Bujon de l'Estang - Vice Chairman, France (former ambassador)
*Lord Chadlington - Trustee 
*Meg Allen - Trustee 
*Jonathan Marland - Treasurer
==USA Trustees==
*Richard Burt (Ambassador)
*Brent Scowcroft - former national security advisor, retired US General.
==Directors==
*Catherine Fall - Director Worldwide 
*Douglas Seay - Director USA 
*Owen Pengelly - Associate Director USA
==American Friends==
*James Rubin - President 
*Daniel Yergin - Secretary 
==Patrons==
*John Major CH - United Kingdom 
*Henry Kissinger - United States of America 
*Lord Gilbert - United Kingdom 
*Karsten Voigt - Coordination of German-American cooperation 
*Antonio Martino - Italy [Italian Minister of Defence] 
*Joseph R. Biden, Jr. - United States of America 
*Alain Juppe - France [Former French Prime Minister] 
*Eduardo Serra - Spain
==Panellists==
*Matthew d'Ancona Deputy Editor and commentator, The Sunday Telegraph 
*Ed Heathcoat Amory Political columnist, the Daily Mail 
*Dr. Christoph Bertram Head of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International Politics and Security) 
*Representative Douglas Bereuter U.S. Congress, R - Nebraska House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on Europe 
*Prof Malcolm Chalmers Bradford University 
*Prof. Michael Clark King's College, London 
*Jean de Courcel Former directeur-adjoint to the Prime Minister 
*The Rt Hon Frank Field MP Labour MP 
*Mr. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger Foreign Editor "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" 
*Dr Jeffrey Gedmin Director, Aspen Institute 
*Lord Howell Conservative Front Bench spokesman on Foreign Affairs House of Lords 
*Lord Inge Former Chief of the Defence Staff 
*Mr. Josef Joffe Editor, "Die Zeit" 
*Prof. Sir John Keegan Historian and Daily Telegraph Defence columnist 
*Mr. Friedrich Merz Head of the CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag 
*Nicolas de la Moriniere Chairman and Chief Executive of ODIOT 
*M. Dominique Moisi Director, Institute of Foreign Relations (IFRI) - Paris 
*Lord Owen Cross-bench peer, former Foreign Secretary 
*Senator Jean Francois-Poncet Former French Foreign Secretary 
*Lord Renwick Labour peer, former Ambassador to USA 
*Sir Malcolm Rifkind Former Foreign Secretary Former Defence Secretary 
*Andrew Roberts Author and journalist 
*Eduardo Serra Chairman UBS Warburg Spain Former Spanish Defence Minister 
*Radek Sikorski Executive Director, New Atlantic Initiative Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute. Former Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Poland. Former Deputy Minister for Defence, Poland 
*Angela Stent Director, Centre for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies - Georgetown University 
*John O'Sullivan Editor, United Press Inc. Washington D.C. former Editor of National Review, former speech writer to Mrs Thatcher 
*Barbara Thomas Deputy Chairman, Friends Provident 
*Dr. Norbert Walter Chief Economist, Deutsche Bank Research GmbH 
*Sir John Weston Former Ambassador to NATO and to the United Nations 
*Daniel Yergin Director, Cambridge Energy Research Associates. Pulitzer prize winning author of 'The prize' and other books including 'Commanding Heights' 
*Friedrich Merz
==Resources==
*Globalisation:Atlantic Partnership
*Atlantic Partnership: Background
*Globalisation:Atlantic Partnership: People
*Globalisation:Atlantic Partnership: Connections
*Globalisation:Atlantic Partnership: Atlanticism and it's Critics
==Contact details==
===In the US===
Sophie Simonard-Norman 
Associate Director, Atlantic Partnership
1015 18th St NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: 202 974 2423
Fax: 202 223 8537
Web: http://www.atlanticpartnership.org
==Notes==