Think Tanks
Think tanks form a knowledge-based network that engages with new ideas, promotes their dissemination, and contributes to the shaping of political debate and public policy. Although think tanks are nonprofit and nonpartisan, they are not necessarily non-ideological. The decentralized nature of the American political system, along with weak party discipline and the nation's philanthropic culture, has led to the proliferation of over two thousand think tanks across the entire range of ideological perspectives.
The first half of the twentieth century saw the creation of some of the country's most important think tanks: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910); Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (1919); Council on Foreign Relations (1921); Brookings Institution (1927); and American Enterprise Institute (AEI, 1943). These early think tanks were focused primarily on producing the highest quality academic research. In essence, they functioned as universities without students. Their goal was not to influence public policy directly but to educate both policymakers and the public about the potential consequences of various foreign policy options.
After World War II, as the United States assumed a greater role in international affairs, the need for independent research on national security issues became even more important. This led to the creation by the air force of the RAND (Research and Development) Corporation in 1948. In addition to providing much-needed external policy evaluation, RAND was a prototype for a new kind of think tank that contracted with the government to provide specific policy-related research. One important think tank inspired by RAND was the Hudson Institute (1961).
The evolution of think tanks toward a more direct influence on public policy was made explicit in the following decade with the establishment of the Heritage Foundation (1973) and the Cato Institute (1977). These, along with the evolution of Brookings and AEI toward a greater focus on policy advocacy, generated more media exposure and more societal influence. As the number and sophistication of think tanks increased, they realized the importance of capturing the attention of both the public and policymakers in order to influence the direction of foreign policy.
Think tanks influence society in several ways. First, they directly influence public policy. Second, they help frame the ongoing debate through what is often called the battle of ideas. Although most people believe think tanks have their greatest influence on society through advocating one policy over another, most scholars argue that their greatest influence comes through shaping the debate. Through appearances on Sunday news programs and the publication of numerous books, articles, and newspaper opinion pieces, the various think tanks frame the discussions that appear on television and in the print media and thus influence the agenda of society. The two most noted examples are the shaping of the debate related to National Missile Defense and the purported influence of neoconservatives on President George W. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq in 2003.
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Bibliography
Abelson, Donald E. American Think-Tanks and Their Role in U.S. Foreign Policy. New York: St. Martin's, 1996.
Abelson, Donald E. Do Think Tanks Matter?: Assessing the Impact of Public Policy Institutes. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002.
McGann, James G. "Academics to Idealogues: A Brief History of the Public Policy Research Industry." PS: Political Science and Politics 25 (1992): 733–740.
McGann, James G., and Weaver, R. Kent, eds. Think Tanks and Civil Society: Catalysts for Ideas and Action. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2000.
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