Atlantic Council Of The United States, Inc. (The)

The Atlantic Council of the United States, Inc. (doing business as Atlantic Council) is a tax-exempt nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that delivers strategic analysis, policy research, dialogue facilitation, and event convening services to federal agencies as a prime contractor (91% of recent awards) and as a subcontractor on defense and international affairs programs. The organization competes full-and-open without set-asides across its federal footprint.

Atlantic Council's federal work concentrates on weapons-of-mass-destruction strategy, international energy cooperation, countering foreign influence operations, human rights advocacy, and multilateral diplomatic engagement. The Defense Threat Reduction Agency dominates the customer base, accounting for 14 awards with $5.8 million in combined potential value across multiple tranches of countering-WMD dialogue and tabletop research support. Representative DTRA work includes a $2.06 million definitive contract (awarded August 2024, performance through January 2028) for WMD dialogue and tabletop research support services under the Strategic Trends Research Initiative; a $1.25 million definitive contract (April 2023) for similar dialogue and tabletop research; and a $263 thousand definitive contract (September 2024) focused on aligning U.S., Indo-Pacific, and European allies on deterring WMD threats in the Indo-Pacific. The Department of State drives substantial volume through its constituent bureaus—Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (13 awards), Bureau of Public Affairs (11 awards), and Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (9 awards)—funding grant work on countering foreign information manipulation, promoting women's economic empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa, and supporting democratic opposition figures. The Department of Energy's Office of International Affairs has awarded six purchase orders for organizing the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC) ministerial forums in multiple cities, with the most recent a $78 thousand order (July 2026) to organize the P-TEC Ministerial and Business Forum in Warsaw in November 2026. The Washington Headquarters Service and Office of the Secretary of Defense have awarded three contracts valued at approximately $822 thousand combined for solicitation studies, space optimization analysis, and special studies.

Federal grant recipients include the Department of State (Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and Office of the Secretary of State), the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Department of Energy. Representative grant work includes a $1.30 million project grant from the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor (August 2022) to support legal practitioners, human rights advocates, and victims of human rights violations in Iran; a $493 thousand cooperative agreement (October 2022) to develop a Syrian Victims Fund framework; and a $295 thousand cooperative agreement (October 2022) from the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation to mobilize responses countering Russian efforts to undermine nonproliferation norms in Eastern Europe. Recent State Department grants have carried termination language tied to executive orders or agency priority changes, with multiple cooperative agreements in 2024 and 2025 terminated under administrative amendments. Grant work encompasses research on peacebuilding and conflict prevention (USIP), clean energy transitions, women's entrepreneurship, artificial intelligence governance, and cyber capacity building for partner nations.

Activity peaked in 2022 with 19 awards and has moderated to 3 awards in 2026 to date, reflecting the terminations and administrative closures evident in recent grant amendments. Five awards (combined potential value $2.8 million) face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months and thus present recompete opportunity. NAICS concentration centers on research and development in the social sciences and humanities (18 awards), educational support services (7 awards), and management and scientific consulting (10 awards combined). Primary Services Codes reflect international affairs R&D (13 awards), professional support services (8 awards), and education/training services (8 awards).

Atlantic Council's subcontractor footprint includes positions under HII Mission Technologies Corp on advanced analysis and technology insertion for U.S. Air Force warfighting and post-Ukraine scenario research (2024–2026), The MITRE Corporation on global cyber capacity building and university cyber competitions (2022–2024), Triad National Security on human resources services for the Los Alamos National Laboratory competition, and the RAND Corporation on global competitive analysis. As a grant sub-recipient, Atlantic Council works under Carnegie Mellon University on multilateral peacebuilding research and under Meridian International Center on responsible AI governance capacity building.