Millennium Fellowship Overview

The Millennium Fellowship is a year-long, high-impact leadership accelerator for rising leaders from around the world and across sectors. Through our program, accomplished global professionals with both demonstrated achievement and reserves of potential sharpen their leadership abilities, increase their capacity for meaningful impact, and build community. Fellows complete a curriculum comprised of world-class leadership development resources and have access to the Atlantic Council’s geopolitical expertise, global networks, and international reach. For more information about the program structure, visit the About the Program page.

Applications for the 2024 Millennium Fellowship are now closed.

Fellows

Thirty-five Millennium Fellows are selected per cohort through a competitive application process. Fellows are between twenty-five and thirty-nine years of age, are already leading at a high level, and have decades of impact ahead in their careers. Diversity is core to the program, and each class of fellows has participants representing every world region. Cohorts are also selected for a balance of public-, private-, and nonprofit-sector perspectives. Past public-sector fellows have included ministers of finance, secretaries of foreign affairs, senior advisors to heads-of-state, military officers, and other leading public officials. Private-sector fellows have included C-suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, groundbreaking entrepreneurs, and leading voices in the media. For more information about fellows and alumni, visit our Fellows Page.

2024 Fellows

Apply

Fellows are selected annually through a competitive application process. Candidates from any country and sector are welcome to apply, provided they are between twenty-five and thirty-nine at the time of the application deadline and demonstrate both passion and potential for shaping the global future.

Applications open in January, selections are made in the spring, and the program calendar begins in the summer. Each application is given thorough consideration and passes through several rounds of review by a committee of subject matter experts across the Atlantic Council. Top candidates will be invited to interview. Accepted fellows sign an offer letter committing to complete the program expectations and pay the associated fees. Scholarships may be available for those who qualify. For more details about the Millennium Fellowship application, eligibility requirements, and costs, please visit our FAQ Page.

Leadership

Content

Press Release

Mar 29, 2019

Atlantic Council Welcomes 2019 Class of Millennium Fellows

WASHINGTON, DC – On March 29th, the Atlantic Council announced it’s 2019 class of Millennium Fellows. An Italian entrepreneur bringing revolutionary vaccination technology to market to eradicate polio and measles rubella; a senior advisor to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia that led landmark legislation to change the country’s name in 2018; the chief-of-staff of […]

New Atlanticist

Dec 10, 2018

Why the Irish border matters

By Dan Haverty and Brendan Reaney

It remains unclear if the withdrawal agreement May has reached with Brussels will impact the life of her government, but it is clear that the Irish border has impacted the Brexit debate and will force the prime minister to turn to her party’s rivals to push the deal through Parliament.

Democratic Transitions Politics & Diplomacy

New Atlanticist

Nov 26, 2018

Latvia struggles to form a government

By Rihards Kols

The newly elected parliament is very fragmented and still—a month and a half after the election—is unable to produce a stable government, a phenomenon also seen in other European countries this year.

Democratic Transitions Elections

New Atlanticist

Sep 7, 2018

Europe’s new normal: Turning the migrant challenge into an opportunity

By Pete Seat

With inhospitable temperatures across North Africa and Central Asia, constant war and conflict in Middle East hot spots, and the advance of authoritarian regimes, today’s refugees don’t represent a temporary conundrum, but rather a new normal of European life.

Climate Change & Climate Action Conflict

New Atlanticist

Aug 2, 2018

South Sudan must end the arbitrary detention of Peter Biar Ajak

By Frederick Kempe, Damon Wilson, and Daniel Bennett

We urge the government of South Sudan to end the arbitrary detention of Peter Biar Ajak, an alumnus of the Atlantic Council Millennium Fellowship, who was arrested in Juba July 28, 2018.

East Africa

New Atlanticist

Jul 6, 2018

Complementarity Without Competition: How NATO Can Benefit from Stronger European Defense Cooperation

By Ulrik Trolle Smed

Despite the current political tension in the transatlantic bond, the facts on the ground for NATO’s summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12 could not be better. After years of calls from the United States for more defense investment, NATO allies have been responding ever more credibly to meet the rising threats in the […]

European Union International Organizations

New Atlanticist

Jul 6, 2018

NATO Needs More Unmanned Aerial Systems

By Nicola Johnson and Jessie Ilkson

NATO faces an array of security threats from the Arctic in the north, Russia in the east, and migrant flows from the south, all of which demand a dynamic and flexible defense force. Although members of the Alliance have increased investment in defense, their focus has been on expensive technology for a potential high-end conflict. […]

NATO Security & Defense

New Atlanticist

Jul 3, 2018

NATO Must Meet Russia’s Hybrid Warfare Challenge

By Rihards Kols

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s use of military force and hybrid warfare tactics in his country’s immediate neighborhood and beyond has brought into question NATO’s ability to defend its eastern border. Russian hybrid warfare, with an increased focus on asymmetric and nontraditional military capabilities, has made it considerably more difficult for NATO to counter destabilization efforts, […]

NATO Security & Defense

Press Release

Jun 19, 2018

Atlantic Council Announces 2018 Millennium Fellows, NATO Summit Program, and Partnership with US Department of State Mission to NATO

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Atlantic Council is pleased to announce today the 2018 Millennium Fellows. With a 3.2 percent acceptance rate, the program is among the most competitive professional development opportunities in the international affairs and policy fields. In 2018, over 655 people from 100 countries applied to become a Millennium Fellow and only 21 […]

Event Recap

May 25, 2018

Sanctions in the Trump Era: One Year In

By Global Business & Economics Program

On May 25th, the Atlantic Council’s Global Business and Economics Program together with the Millennium Leadership Program hosted a panel discussion with a delegation of high executives from Santander Bank. The discussion centered around how economic sanctions affect the banking sector and the priorities of the current administration in this area.

Economic Sanctions Economy & Business