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A think tank is a research institute or other organization providing advice and ideas on problems of policy, commerce, and military interest, and are often associated with military laboratories, corporations, academia, or other institutions. Usually this term refers specifically to organizations which support multi-disciplinary theorists and intellectuals who endeavor to produce analysis or policy recommendations.

History of think tanks

Since "think tank" is a term that has only found use since the 1950s, there is still some debate over what constitutes the first think tank. One candidate is the Fabian Society of Britain, founded in 1884 to promote gradual social change. The Brookings Institution, founded in the US in 1916 is another candidate for the first think tank. The term think tank itself, however, was originally used in reference to organizations that offered military advice, most notably the RAND Corporation, formed originally in 1945.

Until around 1970, there were no more than several dozen think tanks, mostly focused on offering non-partisan policy and military advice to the United States government, and generally with large staffs and research budgets. After 1970, the number of think tanks exploded, as many smaller new think tanks were formed to express various partisan, political, and ideological views.

Etymology and usage

Until the 1940s, most think tanks were known only by the name of the institution. During the Second World War, think tanks were referred to as "brain boxes" after the slang term for the skull. The phrase "think tank" in wartime American slang referred to rooms in which strategists discussed war planning. The first recorded use of the phrase to refer to modern think tanks was in 1959, and by the 1960s the term was commonly used to describe RAND and other groups assisting the armed forces. In recent times, the phrase "think tank" has become applied to a wide range of advice-giving institutions, and there are no precise definitions of the term. Marketing or public relations organizations, especially of an international character, sometimes refer to themselves as think tanks, for example.

Types of think tanks

Some think tanks are clearly aligned with conservative or pro-market approaches to the economy, while others, especially those with an emphasis on social welfare, social equity or environmental outcomes, are viewed as more liberal or left-of-center. The Avalon Table is a Hollywood think tank whose goals are to identify popular trends and shape the direction of mainstream and alternative media.

United States think tanks

Think tanks in the United States play an important role in forming both foreign and domestic policy. Typically, an issue such as national missile defense will be debated within and among think tanks and the result of these debates will influence government policy makers. Think tanks in the United States generally receive funding from private donors, and members of private organization think tanks may feel more free to propose and debate controversial ideas than people within government.

Modern neoconservatism is associated with some of the foreign policy initiatives of think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the Project for the New American Century (PNAC). Heritage Foundation is a more traditional conservative policy think tank. On the other side of the political spectrum are think tanks such as the Institute for Policy Studies, the Progressive Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress. Economic Policy Institute is a prominent progressive think tank whose research emphasizes interests of low-income and middle-income workers. There are also centrist and nonpartisan think tanks such as the Brookings Institution, a well respected center-left organization, and the Cato Institute, a libertarian or "free-market liberal" think tank. The Roosevelt Institution is pushing the think tank model by attempting to organize university and college student bodies into effective think tanks.

A new type of Think Tank is evolving which is based solely on Internet ad hoc social networks. These new types of networks allow people a chance to try out their concepts for discussion without committing to large amounts of time. For some this new Think Tank format works well and many beginners enjoy such stimulus. Some of these more informal think tanks are privately run. Many of these forums are for anyone to participate, some for practice and accumulation of knowledge and others for entertainment value.

Chinese think tanks

In the People's Republic of China a number of think tanks are sponsored by governmental agencies but still retain sufficient non-official status to be able to propose and debate ideas more freely. Indeed, most of the actual diplomacy between China and the United States has taken the form of academic exchanges between members of think tanks.

European think tanks

In Britain, think tanks play a similar role to the United States, attempting to shape policy, and indeed there is some cooperation between British and American think tanks.

In Germany all of the major parties are loosely associated with research foundations that play some role in shaping policy, but generally from the more disinterested role of providing research to support policymakers than explicitly proposing policy. The foundations are:

• Associated with the CDU is the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (in German, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung);
• The CSU is associated with the Hanns Seidel Foundation (Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung);
• The SPD is associated with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung);
• The Free Democratic Party (Germany) is associated with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung);
• The Alliance '90/The Greens are associated with the Heinrich Böll Foundation (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung);
• The Left Party is associated with the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung).

For a comprehensive list of German (and European) think tanks with information on organisation, funding, research areas and job opportunities visit the 'Think Tank Directory'

In Switzerland, Avenir Suisse (which proposes a free-market liberalism agenda) is the only think tank in the sense of this article that is currently active.

In Denmark, The Copenhagen Institute (which is a libertarian/free-market) is the first think tank, founded in 2003. In 2004 the Liberal Think Tank CEPOS was founded by high-profile representatives of Danish academia, business, media and the arts.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Eastern Europe has seen a number of new think tanks arise, although they are still playing a relatively minor role in the forming of government policy.

Russian think tanks

Russian think tanks have experienced a precipitous decline over the past five years. Think tanks under the Soviet Union, analogous to their American counterparts, grew to play a significant role in strategic policy formation. During the era of glasnost, begun by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and continuing under Russian President Boris Yeltsin, public think tanks and policy organizations underwent a brief blooming. However, as economic problems intensified under Yeltsin, and political pressure on public organizations grew under President Vladimir Putin, most of the Russian think tanks have withered away while those who stood closer to Kremlin saw a recent revival.

Criticism

Critics such as Ralph Nader have suggested that the private nature of the funding of think tanks may bias their resulting findings. Some argue members will be inclined to promote or publish only those results that ensure the continued flow of funds from private donors. This risk of distortion similarly threatens the reputation and integrity of organizations such as universities, once considered to stand wholly within the public sector.

Some critics go further to assert think tanks are little more than propaganda tools for promoting the ideological arguments of whatever group established them. They charge that most think tanks, which are usually headquartered in state or national seats of government, exist merely for large-scale lobbying to form opinion in favor of special private interests. They give examples such as organizations calling themselves think tanks having hosted lunches for politicians to present research that critics claim is merely in the political interest of major global interests such as Microsoft, but that the connections to these interests are never disclosed. They charge, as another example, that the RAND Corporation issues research reports on national missile defense that accelerate investment into the very military products being produced by the military manufacturers who control RAND. Critics assert that the status of most think-tanks as non-profit and tax exempt makes them an even more efficient tool to put special interest money to work.

See also

• Policy institute
• Brain Trust
• List of economics consultancies and think tanks

Additional reading

• Abelson, Donald E. Do Think Tanks Matter? Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.
• Callahan, David. "The Think Tank As Flack, How Microsoft and other corporations use conservative policy groups," Washington Monthly (November 1999).
• Fan, Maureen. "Capital Brain Trust Puts Stamp on the World," Washington Post (16 May 2005): B01.
• Lakoff, George. Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know That Liberals Don't. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
• Kinau, Jacques. "Start Your Own Tax Exempt Think Tank: Effective Self-Defense Against Corporate and Political Donor Class Tax Predation"
• Stone, Diane, and Andrew Denham, eds. Think Tank Traditions: Policy Research and the Politics of Ideas. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.
• Morgan, Dan. "Think Tanks: Corporations' Quiet Weapon," Washington Post (29 January 2001): A1.
• Stone, Diane, and Andrew Denham, eds. Think Tank Traditions: Policy Research and the Politics of Ideas. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004.

External links

• The Economist Magazine and NPR's Marketplace report: "Under the Influence: Think Tanks and The Money That Fuels Them"
• SourceWatch's definition of Think Tank
• NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks
• World Press Review Directory of Think-Tanks and NGOs
• iGoBeyond - An innovation community network of connected creative minds

Examples of think tanks:

• The Fabian Society, London-based, left of centre think tank, associated with The Labour Party
• The Foreign Policy Centre, London-based think tank
• The Roosevelt Institution, a student think tank based in the USA
• USAK, Ankara-based Turkish think tank
• , Tulane TANK, composed of highly tauted law students

• Think tanks