by John F.W. Rogers and Frederick Kempe

The world confronts historic challenges: intractable wars in Europe and the Middle East, continued tensions in Asia, all happening amid once-in-a-generation technological shifts driven by artificial intelligence and other disruptive technologies. These challenges are unfolding during a particularly divisive and decisive US and global electoral year, with voters heading to the polls across more than sixty countries representing roughly half the global population.

The combination of these factors creates what many consider the biggest threat to global order since the 1930s. Yet it is also a time of opportunity for the Atlantic Council, when our mission of “shaping the global future together” with partners and allies takes on even greater importance and urgency.

We agree with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s observation that the world is in the early years of a new era, which he has described as one of “strategic competition in an age of interdependence” in which the major powers are fiercely competitive, and increasingly confrontational, but also deeply dependent upon each other.

The Atlantic Council plays a crucial role in providing understanding of this historic moment, particularly in making clear the stakes of these challenges and the connections between them. Supplying that understanding, however, is only a starting place. Beyond that, we work with partners and allies to formulate policies and seek solutions that address the defining challenges of our times. Today’s leaders have the ability and tools to shape the global future, just as their predecessors did in the years after World War II. But, as Sullivan has noted, the political will to do so needs to be mustered.

That is the demanding context for our work.

Fortunately, as we hope you will conclude from our Annual Report 2023/2024, the Atlantic Council has never been stronger operationally, substantively, or financially in our sixty-three-year history.

Yet the numbers that you’ll find in our financial summary section only tell part of the story, as we have been “growing better” at the same time in the people we hire, the projects we execute, and the quality of our events and publications. These results are produced by a motivated, resourceful, capable, and purposeful team, one that understands the historic context in which they operate.  

For example, to overcome the challenges of this new era, we are working to galvanize support for sustaining an independent, sovereign, and democratic Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression; to design a future Middle East that provides equal measures of security, peace, prosperity, and dignity to all, while protecting the region’s countries and people from the malign actions of terrorists and other spoilers; and to further stabilize US relations with China to allow a fierce competition for the global future that is free of violent conflict. Yet that just scratches the surface of our work, which ranges from harnessing technology for good to navigating the energy transition, and from economic statecraft to regional security cooperation.

The times are uniquely challenging. With your engagement and support, the Atlantic Council is equipped to help the United States and its global partners and allies shape a better future.

Thank you for your support of the Atlantic Council’s purposeful, nonpartisan, values-driven work. Our community is stronger because of you.

Sincerely,

John F.W. Rogers & Frederick Kempe