This year's awards banquet "included ten current or former heads of state and government, two dozen members of Congress, 40 ambassadors to the United States and 35 global chief executives, and numerous senior officials of the Obama administration." [6]
In February of 2009 James Jones stepped down as chairman of the Atlantic Council to become Barack Obama's National Security Advisor. Brent Scowcroft assisted in selecting Obama's national security team, so Jones' appointment should have been no surprise.
At the same time Susan Rice left the Atlantic Council for the U.S. ambassadorship to the United Nations and Richard Holbrooke to become the White House's and State Department's Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Fellow members General Eric Shinseki and Anne-Marie Slaughter went on to become the Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Director of Policy Planning at the State Department, respectively.
As an indication of why Clinton received the main award, in his comments he boasted of his military interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo although "78 percent of the US public opposed going in to the Balkans...." [7]
Georgian news media reported that the nation's President Mikheil Saakashvili "attended the annual reception at the prestigious Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C where he was invited as the co-chairperson of the event." [8]
As a further earnest of its mission to promote "constructive U.S. leadership and engagement in international affairs based on the central role of the Atlantic community in meeting the international challenges of the 21st century" [9] and in loyalty to the four pillars of the "North Atlantic Treaty; democracy, freedom, security and the rule of law," [10] in past years awards were given to:
2009: The Distinguished International Leadership Award to former President George H.W. Bush and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
The Distinguished Military Leadership Award to U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus "for his strength and courage in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout his military career."
Defense Secretary Robert Gates provided the introduction for Bush and Zbigniew Brzezinski for the German official receiving the award for Kohl. Bill Clinton sent a personal message for Bush.
2008: The Distinguished International Leadership Award was given to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the military award to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen and the business one to Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Then former Spanish Prime Minister and Atlantic Council International Advisory Board member Jose Maria Aznar introduced Blair. The dinner also included remarks by former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell and ex-National Security Advisor Scowcroft.
2007: The Distinguished International Leadership Award was given to former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan and the military equivalent to outgoing NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Jones. Colin Powell, the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished International Leadership Award, introduced the honorees.
Previous recipients included Scowcroft himself, Henry Kissinger, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Joseph Ralston and former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson.
On the website of the Atlantic Council, with the tag Renewing the Alliance for the 21st Century, [11] among the links to other sites provided are those under the heading of think tanks, which are:
American Enterprise Institute
American Foreign Policy Council
Aspen Institute
Brookings Institution
Carnegie Endowment
Cato Institute
Center for a New American Security
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Transatlantic Relations/Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies
Council on Foreign Relations
Foreign Policy Research Institute
German Marshall Fund of the United States
Heritage Foundation
Hudson Institute
New America Foundation
Nixon Center
Rand Corporation
United States Institute of Peace
Wilson Center International Center for Scholars
The above organizations contain what was formerly described in the corporate and financial worlds as interlocking directorates; officials and members of one are often also those of several others.
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