Atlantic Initiative U.S. is a non-profit 501(c)(3), non-partisan organization based in Washington D.C. Founded in May 2008 as the American counterpart of Atlantische Initiative e.V., it shares the belief that a strong partnership between America and Europe is crucial to defending our common interests and values.

Atlantic Initiative U.S. launched with a major event entitled „How Social Media and Web 2.0 are Changing International Relations,“ a panel discussion featuring Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Andrew Rasiej of Personal Democracy Forum and Jose Antonio Vargas of the Washington Post.

Its signature project is the open think tank atlantic-community.org. Atlantic Community is a member-driven foreign policy think tank that encourages open and democratic dialogue on the challenges facing Europe and North America. It especially aims to provide a voice for new generation of thinkers and young leaders, giving them the opportunity to publish and debate side by side with established experts, and to have their policy ideas seen by senior officials.

Officers

Rüdiger Lentz is the president of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He studied international relations and history at the University of Hamburg and has been the Washington bureau chief and senior diplomatic correspondent for Deutsche Welle Radio and Television since January 1999. Prior to his assignment in Washington, he served as Deutsche Welle’s Brussels Bureau Chief. Before joining Deutsche Welle, Rüdiger worked as a correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel and as a TV commentator and reporter at ARD/WDR. He is a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, UCLA, and the Federal Armed Forces University and a regular guest on CNN and C-Span.

Christopher Jurgens is a member of the board of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He is a senior manager at Accenture Development Partnerships and an accomplished speaker on non-profit consulting, global management, technology services and outsourcing. Accenture Development Partnerships is a non-profit organization that provides consulting services to donors, non-governmental organisations and other non-profit entities working in developing countries. He holds degrees from Georgetown and Miami University and has worked at the Office of the Secretary at the US Department of Transportation’s international affairs division.

Wess Mitchell is a member of the board of Atlantic Initiative U.S. He is director of research at The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a research institute dedicated to the study of Central Europe. Mitchell is a frequent contributor to leading American and European newspapers and journals and a regular speaker at transatlantic policy conferences and workshops. Mitchell was a policy analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis and worked in the office of Texas Congressman Larry Combest. He holds an undergraduate degree in history and a master’s degree in German and European studies from Georgetown University; and a graduate certificate from the American Consortium on European Union Studies.