The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria is a non-governmental, non-partisan organization dedicated to fostering the common values of the Euro-Atlantic community.

History

The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria was created in 1990 around the pro-

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

lobby in the first post- Cold War

Bulgarian Parliament The National Assembly ( bg, Народно събрание, Narodno sabranie) is the unicameral parliament and legislative body of the Republic of Bulgaria. The National Assembly was established in 1879 with the Tarnovo Constitution. Ordi ...

. It was born when its founder,

Solomon Passy Solomon Isaac Passy ( bg, Соломон Исак Паси) (born 22 December 1956) is a Bulgarian scientist, politician, and innovator, founder and President of the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria (since 1990), Foreign Minister in the 20012005 Saks ...

, also the owner of a

Trabant Trabant () is a series of small cars produced from 1957 until 1991 by former East German car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. In total, four different models were made, the Trabant 500, Trabant 600, Trabant 601, and the Tr ...

automobile, welcomed

Manfred Wörner Manfred Hermann Wörner (24 September 1934 in Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt – 13 August 1994 in Brussels) was a German politician and diplomat. He served as the defense minister of West Germany between 1982 and 1988. He then served as the seventh S ...

and gave him a tour of Sofia in a Trabant. Officially established on 4 April 1991, the Atlantic Club has grown to include members from all walks of life: government, academia, military, business and media. The Atlantic Club was the first Atlantic NGO outside NATO, founded on

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist repub ...

territory, and the first non-NATO member (since 1992) of the

Atlantic Treaty Association The Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) is an umbrella organization which draws together political leaders, academics, military officials, and diplomats to support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The ATA is an independent organization ...

(ATA). The Club raised the funds, and jointly with the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, organized the resumption of Bulgaria's Antarctic activities in 1993, the upgrading of the Bulgarian refuge on

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

and its redesignation as St. Kliment Ohridski Base, as well as the construction of a new main building of the base started during the 1995/96 season. The Atlantic Club initiated a national committee that organized the visit of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

to Bulgaria in 2002, and also co-hosted the mass rally for U.S. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

who visited

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

in 1999, and another one for US Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003. In 2004, Bulgaria joined NATO. After attending the Nobel Prize Ceremony in Oslo in 2012, Solomon Passy suggested that the EU should nominate Bulgaria for the Nobel Peace Prize next year. In 2013, the Club underlined the 70th anniversary of the rescue of nearly 50,000 Jews from being sent to concentration camps in Nazi Germany when the government of Tsar Boris III planned deportation of the Jewish population but it was prevented by the Holy Synod, the Bulgarian Orthodox church and civil protests. In September 2015, the ACB sent a delegation to the Fiji after the Asian country had established diplomatic ties with Bulgaria in March 2015. In 2018, the ACB disputed the MIG-29 contracts signed between the Bulgarian government and the Russian Federation.

About

The Atlantic Club of Bulgaria works to promote Bulgaria's integration with and role in the Atlantic Alliance, and all Euro-Atlantic political, security, economic and other structures. Within Bulgaria, the Atlantic Club serves the broader purpose of supporting democracy, human rights, free market economy and rule of law.

Initiatives

The Club's activities focus primarily on raising public awareness about security and international affairs. The list of guest speakers includes the

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiolog ...

Laureates

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democrati ...

, Shimon Peres, Mikhail Gorbachev and the

14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

. A number of heads of states and governments have addressed the Club. In its

think-tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmental ...

capacity, the Atlantic Club sponsors round tables, seminars and conferences on a wide variety of topics, and is a leading partner in the Security Sector Reform Coalition formed by Bulgarian

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s to develop strategic reports on key policy issues in the field of foreign and security policy, and defense reform and modernization. The Club assists in the establishment of Atlantic associations in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and more recently in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

, and other Asian, African and South American countries. The Atlantic Club is a co-founder of the Bulgarian Aerospace Agency, the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute and the Economic Policy Institute,

Organization

The Club's international board of directors includes prominent individuals from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

and North America working for Atlanticism or humanism in general. The organization has regional chapters in

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a pop ...

Dospat Dospat ( bg, Доспат) is a town in the very south of Bulgaria, part of Smolyan Province, situated in the Rhodope Mountains, close to Dospat Dam. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Dospat Municipality. As of December 2010, t ...

and Sarnitsa,

Gabrovo Gabrovo ( bg, Габрово ) is a town in central northern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Gabrovo Province. It is situated at the foot of the central Balkan Mountains, in the valley of the Yantra River, and is known as an internatio ...

Haskovo Haskovo ( bg, Хасково ) is a city in the region of Northern Thrace in southern Bulgaria and the administrative centre of the Haskovo Province, not far from the borders with Greece and Turkey. According to Operative Program Regional Develo ...

, Plovdiv,

Ruse Ruse may refer to: Places *Ruse, Bulgaria, a major city of Bulgaria **Ruse Municipality ** Ruse Province ** 19th MMC – Ruse, a constituency *Ruše, a town and municipality in north-eastern Slovenia * Ruše, Žalec, a small settlement in east-ce ...

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

and

Yambol Yambol ( bg, Ямбол ) is a town in Southeastern Bulgaria and administrative centre of Yambol Province. It lies on both banks of the Tundzha river in the historical region of Thrace. It is occasionally spelled ''Jambol''. Yambol is the ad ...

, and is associated with the NATO Information Center in

, the Bulgarian Euro-Atlantic Youth Club, and the Manfred Wörner Foundation. The Founding President (1991–2001 and 2009-) and Honorary President of the Club (2001–2009) is Dr.

. Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov was the Chairman and CEO of the Atlantic Club in 2001-2009.

Awards

* 1998 : Manfred Wörner Fellowship by

to develop a strategic study entitled ''NATO's Global Mission in the 21st Century''. * ''Golden Award'' for outstanding personal contribution to promoting Atlantic values, solidarity and cooperation. * The

President of Bulgaria The president of the Republic of Bulgaria is the head of state of Bulgaria and the commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Army. The official residence of the president is at Boyana Residence, Sofia. After the completion of the second round of votin ...

has named a geographical feature in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

for the Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, namely the Atlantic Club Ridge on

Publications

* S. Popov et al., ''NATO's Global Mission in the 21st Century'', Atlantic Club of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2000 * J. Bugajski and B. Tashev eds., ''Early warning and policy perspectives in the Trans-Atlantic security agenda: Central and East European point of view'', NI Plus Publishing House, Sofia, 2005, * L. Ivanov and P. Pantev eds., ''The Joint Bulgarian-American Military Facilities: Public opinion and strategic, political, economic, and environmental aspects'', NI Plus Publishing House, Sofia, 2006 (in Bulgarian) * L. Ivanov ed., ''Bulgaria: Bezmer and adjacent regions — Guide for American military'', Multiprint Ltd., Sofia, 2007,

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atlantic Club of Bulgaria 1990 establishments in Bulgaria Think tanks established in 1990 Foreign policy and strategy think tanks Think tanks based in Bulgaria Political and economic think tanks based in Europe Politics of Bulgaria Bulgaria and NATO