Atlas Network

Atlas Network, formerly known as Atlas Economic Research Foundation, is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that provides training, networking and grants for libertarian and free-market groups around the world.

Atlas Network was founded in 1981 by Antony Fisher, a British entrepreneur, who wanted to create a means to connect various think tanks via a global network. Described as "a think tank that creates think tanks", the organization partners with nearly 600 organizations in over 100 countries.

Notable partners of Atlas Network include think tanks such as the Institute of Economic Affairs in Great Britain; the Cato Institute, Heartland Institute, American Legislative Exchange Council, Manhattan Institute, Pacific Research Institute and Acton Institute in the United States; the Fraser Institute and MacDonald-Laurier Institute in Canada; the Centre for Independent Studies in Australia; and the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union.

History

Background and founding

Atlas Network was founded in 1981 in San Francisco as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation by Antony Fisher, a British entrepreneur who was influenced by Austrian School economist F.A. Hayek and his 1944 book The Road to Serfdom¹. After founding the Institute of Economic Affairs in London in 1955, Fisher helped establish the Fraser Institute, the International Center for Economic Policy Studies (later renamed the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research) and the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy in the 1970s². The late Linda Whetstone, Fisher's daughter, served as chairman of Atlas Network³.

F.A. Hayek, Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman, all friends of Fisher, formally endorsed the organization⁴. Atlas Network connected various think tanks and was part of a global network of "academics, journalists and business people who refined and promoted the [neoliberal] doctrine"⁵. Timothy Mitchell writes that by 1979, when Thatcher won the election, "what had begun as a fringe right-wing intellectual current had become the most powerful political orthodoxy in the West"⁶.

Early years, expansion and influence

Fisher conceived Atlas Network as a means to connect various think tanks via a global network through which the organizations could learn best practices from one another and "pass the best research and policy ideas from one to the other"⁷. Initially comprising only Fisher's think tanks, Atlas Network grew to encompass many others, including those affiliated with the Koch family⁸. Major American think tanks that are partners of Atlas Network have included the American Legislative Exchange Council, Cato Institute, The Heritage Foundation (until 2020) and the Heartland Institute, which are "influential" in "shaping U.S. conservative politics"⁸.

Although Timothy Mitchell claims that Fisher named the organization after Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged⁹, Atlas Network states the "name was not derived from the book"¹⁰. Its website also point out that it "is a nonpartisan organization"¹⁰. Atlas has received funding from American and European businesses and think tanks to coordinate and organize libertarian organizations in the developing world¹¹. In 1981, Atlas Network helped economist Hernando de Soto found the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD) in Peru¹² and also invested in the Institut Economique de Paris (IEP) in France¹³. In 1983, Fisher helped launch the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) in Dallas, Texas¹⁴, and the Jon Thorlaksson Institute in Iceland (now replaced by the Icelandic Research Centre for Innovation and Economic Growth)¹⁵. Atlas Network helped establish the Hong Kong Centre for Economic Research in 1987 and the Liberty Institute in New Delhi in 1996¹⁶. Atlas Network grew from 15 think tanks in nine countries in the mid-1980s to 457 partners in 96 countries as of 2020¹⁷.

Atlas Network has been described as "self-replicating, a think tank that creates think tanks"¹⁸. The 2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, which is "one measure of a think tank's performance and impact ... designed for use in conjunction with other metrics to help identify and evaluate public policy research organizations around the world", ranked Atlas Network as 54th among the "Top Think Tanks in the United States"¹⁹. As described by WNYC Studios, Atlas Network's think tank partners were enabled "to producing white papers, meeting with Politicos, liaising with the media, writing laws" and more²⁰. In 2018, sociologist Karin Fischer described Atlas Network campaigns for deregulation and property rights as having so much influence that the World Bank's "Doing Business Index follows exactly Atlas' policy recommendations"²¹.

Atlas Network has promoted entrepreneurship in Africa and other parts of the world, including what it calls freedom-oriented "idea entrepreneurs"²².

Tobacco and oil industry links

According to The Guardian, more than a fifth of Atlas Network partners worldwide had either opposed tobacco controls or taken tobacco donations²³. A 2017 paper in the International Journal of Health Planning and Management said that Atlas Network "channeled funding from tobacco corporations to think tank actors to produce publications supportive of industry positions"²⁴. The University of Bath's Tobacco Control Research Group said Atlas Network "appears to have played a particular role in helping the tobacco industry oppose tobacco control measures in Latin America" during the 1990s²⁵. In 2021, Le Monde and "The Investigative Desk" (Netherlands) identified 17 Atlas Network partners engaged in lobbying and advocacy for "tobacco harm reduction", which supports vaping as a substitute for smoking²⁶.

Atlas Network and some partners, such as the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Cato Institute, the Fraser Institute, the Heartland Institute, the Macdonald–Laurier Institute, the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, the Montreal Economic Institute and Second Street, have been linked to oil and gas producers, efforts opposing governments' and activists' efforts against climate change and the spreading of climate change denial²⁷. According to documents described in The Guardian, Atlas Network collaborated with Canada's Macdonald–Laurier Institute in a push for oil and gas development on indigenous land²⁸. After The New Republic blamed Atlas for its partners' efforts in some countries to criminalize climate protests, particularly in Germany⁸, Atlas Network said it supports free speech for climate protesters²⁹. Some academics have described Atlas Network and its partners as an "oil-industry-funded transnational network"³⁰, as well as "the predominant vehicle for fossil capital's global mobilization against climate science and policy"³¹, and its affiliates as being "partly funded by Koch and allied capitalists, with heavy support from fossil fuel-based fortunes"³². In 2023, Atlas Network responded to The New Republic claims, stating that it has "no partnerships with extractive industries such as oil and gas companies, we receive no funding from oil and gas companies and have not received funding from oil and gas companies for nearly 15 years"⁸.

Political ties

The Intercept, The Guardian and The New Republic have described Atlas or its partners as having ties to right-wing and conservative movements, including the administration of Donald Trump in the United States, Brexit in Great Britain³³ and anti-government protests in Latin America^{11 8}. A 2024 study analyzing 52 Atlas Network partners found that "while some Atlas-affiliated partners show readiness to confront the threat of nationalist and authoritarian societal mobilization, others conceive it as a tactical or strategic opportunity to advance free market causes"³⁴. According to The Guardian, "Atlas took no position on Brexit itself, and many of its European partners were opposed, but directors of UK groups in the network were prominent in the official campaign to take Britain out of the EU"³⁵. In Brazil, Atlas had a role in the Free Brazil Movement, which led to the rise of Jair Bolsonaro³⁵, and it sponsored the Liberty Forum where policies of president Lula da Silva were opposed³⁶.

According to Spanish analyst Julián Macías, Atlas Network was linked to an online campaign that used fake accounts against the Cuban government during the 2021 Cuban protests. Macías also claimed that Atlas Network partners' X.com accounts had been involved in bot or troll center campaigns during the 2019 Bolivian political crisis and the 2021 Ecuadorian and Peruvian general elections³⁷.

Atlas Network partners opposed the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine³⁴. Atlas Network worked with its partners to create the Ukraine Freedom Fund, acquiring, transporting and providing goods to Ukrainians³⁸, and supporting Atlas Network partner groups in the country. The Washington Examiner reported that the humanitarian aid totaled $3.5 million by December 2022³⁹. According to Reason, Atlas Network supports nonprofit organizations that fight against authoritarianism and support free markets, self-determination and rule of law⁴⁰.

This article is derived from the English Wikipedia article "Atlas Network" as of 22 Jan 2025, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.