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About Frederick Kempe

Fred Kempe is the president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council. Under his leadership since 2007, the Council has achieved historic, industry-leading growth in size and influence, expanding its work through regional centers spanning the globe and through centers focused on topics ranging from international security and energy to global trade and next generation mentorship. Before joining the Council, Kempe was a prize-winning editor and reporter at the Wall Street Journal for more than twenty-five years. In New York, he served as assistant managing editor, International, and columnist. Prior to that, he was the longest-serving editor and associate publisher ever of the Wall Street Journal Europe, running the global Wall Street Journal’s editorial operations in Europe and the Middle East.

In 2002, The European Voice, a leading publication following EU affairs, selected Kempe as one of the fifty most influential Europeans, and as one of the four leading journalists in Europe. At the Wall Street Journal, he served as a roving correspondent based out of London; as a Vienna Bureau chief covering Eastern Europe and East-West Affairs; as chief diplomatic correspondent in Washington, DC; and as the paper’s first Berlin Bureau chief following the unification of Germany and collapse of the Soviet Union.

As a reporter, he covered events including the rise of Solidarity in Poland and the growing Eastern European resistance to Soviet rule; the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia and his summit meetings with President Ronald Reagan; the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon in the 1980s; and the American invasion of Panama. He also covered the unification of Germany and the collapse of Soviet Communism.

He is the author of four books. The most recent, Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth, was a New York Times Best Seller and a National Best Seller. Published in 2011, it has subsequently been translated into thirteen different languages.

Kempe is a graduate of the University of Utah and has a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he was a member of the International Fellows program in the School of International Affairs. He won the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism’s top alumni achievement award and the University of Utah’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.

For his commitment to strengthening the transatlantic alliance, Kempe has been decorated by the Presidents of Poland and Germany and by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Content

Inflection Points

Oct 1, 2024

The Israeli offensive and Iranian missile attack test two visions for the Middle East’s future

By Frederick Kempe

One vision is driven by Iran and its proxies. The other seeks to counter and contain Iran and lay the groundwork for the eventual emergence of a dynamic, peaceful, modernizing Middle East.

Conflict Iran

Inflection Points Today

Sep 30, 2024

Zelenskyy and the challenge of navigating election-year America

By Frederick Kempe

The Ukrainian president’s recent fraught visit to the US underscored both the historic stakes of the election and the perils involved in maneuvering around the parties.

Elections Politics & Diplomacy

Inflection Points

Sep 28, 2024

The US confronts two global threats: China-Russia and itself

By Frederick Kempe

NEW YORK—Two dark clouds hung over the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York. The first was the growing peril of Chinese-Russian common cause. The second was uncertainty about whether US leadership will rise to the challenge after the November elections. It’s impossible to separate the two issues, as the disruptive dangers of […]

China Conflict

Inflection Points

Sep 21, 2024

How the Atlantic Council contributed to Evan Gershkovich’s release

By Frederick Kempe

An encounter at the Global Citizen Awards played a modest but vital role in the exchange that released the Wall Street Journal reporter who was imprisoned in Russia.

Freedom and Prosperity International Norms

Inflection Points

Sep 17, 2024

Biden shouldn’t ‘throw away his shot’ at a foreign policy legacy. It starts with Ukraine.

By Frederick Kempe

Biden’s excessive caution on aiding Ukraine could squander his best chance at leaving behind a positive foreign policy legacy.

Ukraine United States and Canada

Inflection Points Today

Aug 1, 2024

Welcome home, Evan

By Frederick Kempe

We at the Atlantic Council are overjoyed and relieved that Evan has been released after 491 days of wrongful imprisonment in Russia, writes Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe.

Human Rights Media

Inflection Points Today

Jul 25, 2024

Dispatch from Paris: The Olympics of hope begin on the River Seine

By Frederick Kempe

The Olympics never take place in a political vacuum, but this year’s begin amid the biggest threats to global order since the 1930s.

Democratic Transitions France

Inflection Points

Jul 23, 2024

Biden’s legacy depends most of all on Ukraine

By Frederick Kempe

The US president has recognized that the world is at an inflection point. Now comes the part he cannot control.

Conflict Elections

Inflection Points Today

Jul 20, 2024

Xi’s answer to critics: Persist!

By Frederick Kempe

China’s Third Plenum this past week doubled down on Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s determination to put party and state control ahead of economic growth and consumers.

China Economy & Business

Inflection Points

Jul 15, 2024

This might be NATO’s greatest struggle yet—and it’s global

By Frederick Kempe

At its Washington summit, NATO acknowledged how China and Russia are working together to revise the global order. But what will the Alliance do about it?

China Europe & Eurasia