Atlantic Community

Atlantic Community
Name	Atlantic Community
Formation	2007
Type	Non-profit think tank / online community
Headquarters	Berlin, Germany
Region served	Transatlantic
Language	English
Leader title	Founder
Leader name	Stefan Haselberger
Website	(defunct)

Atlantic Community Atlantic Community was an online policy platform and non-profit initiative founded in 2007 to connect policy experts, practitioners, and students across the North Atlantic. It sought to crowdsource policy proposals on transatlantic security, foreign affairs, and international cooperation by combining elements of a think tank with social media and editorial curation. The initiative operated as a bridge between established institutions and emerging voices in the networks surrounding North Atlantic Treaty Organization, European Union, United States Department of State, and leading research centers.

History

Atlantic Community was launched in 2007 by Stefan Haselberger with the explicit aim of creating a digital counterpart to traditional institutions such as the German Marshall Fund of the United States, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the Atlantic Council. Early activities engaged contributors affiliated with Harvard Kennedy School, London School of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, and Georgetown University. The platform gained visibility during debates on NATO enlargement, the Iraq War aftermath, and the Afghanistan conflict, publishing crowd-sourced proposals that attracted attention from analysts at Brookings Institution, Chatham House, and the Council on Foreign Relations. Throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s, Atlantic Community experimented with idea competitions, editorial peer review, and partnerships with organizations including NATO Public Diplomacy Division, European Commission, and national foreign ministries. Operational challenges and shifts in digital media ecosystems led to declining activity by the mid-2010s.

Organizational Structure

The organizational structure combined a small central secretariat with a volunteer editorial board and a network of affiliated moderators drawn from academic and policy institutions. Leadership roles included a founder-director, editorial director, and program managers who coordinated with partners such as Deutsche Gesellschaft für Auswärtige Politik and French Institute of International Relations. The advisory board featured practitioners linked to NATO Parliamentary Assembly, members of the diplomatic corps from capitals including Washington, D.C., Berlin, and Brussels, and scholars from institutions such as Oxford University, University of Cambridge, and Princeton University. Internally, teams handled content moderation, outreach to think tanks like Center for Strategic and International Studies and European Council on Foreign Relations, and event coordination with bodies like the Munich Security Conference. Decision-making combined editorial independence with partner consultation, mirroring models used by RAND Corporation and other policy-research organizations.

Activities and Programs

Primary activities consisted of online idea competitions, thematic campaigns, and curated publication series targeting topics such as NATO burden-sharing, transatlantic trade, and cooperative responses to crises. Competitions invited submissions from contributors connected to Atlantic Treaty signatory states and affiliates at universities including Yale University, Stanford University, and University of Toronto. Editorially selected pieces were sometimes promoted to conferences organized by NATO Summit hosts, symposiums at European Council on Foreign Relations, and roundtables held with delegations from the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the European Parliament. Atlantic Community also ran webinars and collaborative workshops in partnership with organizations like International Crisis Group and Open Society Foundations. Publications were disseminated to practitioners at ministries including the German Federal Foreign Office and the U.S. Department of Defense.

Membership and Partnerships

Membership comprised registered contributors, editorial volunteers, and partner institutions. Contributor profiles often listed affiliations with universities such as Columbia University and research centers like Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Partnerships were established with a spectrum of entities: think tanks including Center for European Policy Analysis, NGOs such as Transparency International, multinational bodies like Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and media outlets that covered transatlantic affairs. Collaboration extended to student associations at Sciences Po and policy incubators associated with Hertie School. Networking was further enabled through links to alumni networks of NATO Defense College and bilateral policy initiatives between capitals including Ottawa and London.

Funding and Governance

Funding models relied on grants, sponsorships, and institutional partnerships rather than subscription revenue. Donors and sponsors included foundations active in transatlantic affairs such as Carnegie Corporation of New York, philanthropic programs tied to Rockefeller Foundation-style endowments, and project-based support from national ministries. Governance involved a board of directors and an advisory council drawing members from established institutions like Atlantic Council and German Marshall Fund of the United States. Financial oversight followed nonprofit best practices comparable to procedures at Open Society Foundations and Ford Foundation, though transparency and long-term sustainability challenged smaller digital initiatives in the period. Some partnerships required memoranda of understanding with bodies like the European Commission for specific project funding.

Impact and Reception

Atlantic Community received recognition for amplifying young voices and for pioneering hybrid models that blended crowdsourcing with expert curation, attracting commentary from publications including Foreign Policy, The Economist, and Die Zeit. Academics at King's College London and commentators at Politico noted the platform’s role in democratizing policy debate and feeding ideas into institutional processes such as NATO planning and EU foreign-policy consultations. Critics raised concerns echoing assessments of similar initiatives—highlighting limits in editorial rigor compared with legacy institutions like Brookings Institution—and questioned sustainability amid changing online attention economies shaped by platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Nonetheless, alumni and partners in networks tied to NATO and the European Union External Action Service cite specific proposals that informed parliamentary briefings and conference panels, evidencing a modest but tangible influence on transatlantic policy conversations.

Category:Transatlantic relations Category:Think tanks