Think Tanks, Foreign Policy, and Emerging Powers

McGann, James G.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-60312-4_2

James G. McGann²

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9 Citations

Abstract

The definition of the term “think tank” has changed significantly over time. Since their emergence in the 1830s, there have been four distinct eras during which the definitions of think tanks have developed. In the first era, think tanks were considered completely independent; in the second era, they were considered government contracted; in the third era, they became more focused on scholars and academics; and lastly in the present era, many different scholars give slightly different definitions of the term “think tank,” but these almost always have to do with expertise on a certain topic aiding policy-making and governance. There is much debate regarding the independence of think tanks when it comes to legality, finances, and intellect, yet most academics agree that think tanks generally enjoy a significant amount of independence. This chapter also aims to acknowledge the conditional differences that a think tank may face in countries outside the United States, which may cause it to operate differently. It becomes especially imperative to note the difference in the think tanks working in other regions such as the developing world or among emerging powers.

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Notes

1.
Thomas Medvetz, “Think Tanks as an Emergent Field” The Social Science Research Council (2008): 1.
2.
Simon James, “Review of Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process by Diane Stone” Public Administration 76, no. 2 (1998): 409–410.
3.
This is reflected in the following works: Abelson, Do Think Tanks Matter?, 8–9; Smith, The Idea Brokers, xiii–xvi; McGann, Comparative Think Tanks, Politics and Public Policy, 11–12; McGann and Weaver, Think Tanks and Civil Societies: Catalysts for Ideas and Action, 4–5; Weaver, “The Changing World of Think Tanks,” 563–564; Medvetz, “Think Tanks as an Emergent Field,” 9–10; Medvetz, “Hybrid Intellectuals,” 1–3; Stone, Think Tanks across Nations: A Comparative Approach, 2–6; Rich, “Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise,” 11–12; DeMuth, “Thinking about Think Tanks,” in Think Tank’ with Ben Wattenberg part one of two, 2; Pautz, “Think Tanks in Scotland,” 2–5; Stone, “Think Tank Transnationalization,” 28; Denham and Stone, Think Tank Traditions, 1–4; Rich, Think Tanks, 11–12.
4.
Diane Stone, Capturing the Political Imagination: Think Tanks and the Policy Process (London: Frank Cass, 1996), 10.
Thomas Medvetz, Think Tanks in America. Chicago, Ill.: Univ. of Chicago Pr., 2014: 3.
5.
Stone, Capturing the Political Imagination, 10.
6.
Paul Dickson, Think Tanks (New York: Atheneum, 1971).
7.
Ibid.
8.
James McGann, The Competition for Dollars, Scholars, and Influence in the Public Policy Research. Lanham: University Press of America, 1995. 19.
9.
Donald E. Abelson, A Capitol Idea: Think Tanks and US Foreign Policy. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006. 54.
10.
James G. McGann, “Think Tanks and the Transnationalization of Foreign Policy,” U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda 7, no. 3 (2002): 14.
11.
Dickson, Think Tanks, 26.
12.
R. Kent Weaver, “The Changing World of Think Tanks,” Political Science and Politics 22 (1989), 566. This dynamic is also identified in Abelson, A Capitol Idea, 74–77.
13.
Ibid.
14.
Marcus G. Raskin, Being and Doing (New York: Random House, 1971), xii, xxv.
15.
Michael L. Katz, “American Think Tanks: Their Influence Is on the Rise,” Carnegie Reporter 5, issue 2 (2009): 7. http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/Reporter/PDF/carnegiereporter_v5n2.pdf.
16.
Peter W. Singer, “Washington’s Think Tanks: Factories to Call Our Own,” Brookings Institution (2010) http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/0813_think_tanks_singer.aspx.
17.
Harold Orlans. The Nonprofit Research Institute: Its Operation, Origins, Problems and Prospects (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972), 3.
18.
McGann, The Competition, 28.
19.
Dickson, Think Tanks, 26.
20.
McGann, The Competition, 31.
21.
Dickson, Think Tanks, 28.
22.
Ibid.
23.
David Boorstin, “Directions of Policy Research,” Congressional Quarterly 2 (1975): 725–744.
24.
Roger E. Levien, “Independent Public Policy Analysis Organization—A Major Social Invention,” in Rand Papers Series ed. Rand Corporation (Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, 1969), 4231.
25.
Nelson W. Polsby, “Tanks But No Tanks,” Public Opinion 6 (1983): 14–16, 58–59.
26.
Ibid., 58–59.
27.
George A. Fauriol, “Think Tanks and U.S. Foreign Policy,” A paper at The Fourth Tamkang American Strides Conference, Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan, November 25–28, 1984. 1, 9.
28.
Yehezkel Dror, “Think Tanks. A New Invention in Government,” In Making Bureaucracies Work ed. Carol H. Weiss and Allen H. Barton (Beverly Hills, London: Sage, 1980), 139–152.
29.
Ibid., 141–145.
30.
Dror, “Think Tanks. A New”, 145.
31.
McGann, The Competition, 42.
32.
Winard Gellner, “Political Think Tanks: Functions and Perspectives of a Strategic Elite” A Paper at the 1990 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. 5.
33.
McGann, The Transformation, 49.
34.
Weaver, “The Changing World,” 563.
35.
Orlans, The Nonprofit Research Institute, 3.
36.
Weaver, “The Changing World,” 568.
37.
Ibid., 564.
38.
Ibid., 567.
39.
Ibid., 564.
40.
Samantha Durst and James Thurber, “Studying Washington Think Tanks: In Search of Definitions and Data,” Paper presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, the Atlanta Hilton and Towers, August 31–September 3, 1989. 14.
41.
Richard M. Weaver. Ideas Have Consequences (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948). The notion of a marketplace of ideas and the competition of ideas has its roots in John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty, published in 1859, in which he stresses the importance of liberty of thought and discussion.
42.
Robert K. Landers, “Think Tanks: The New Partisans,” Editorial Research Reports 1, no. 23 (1986): 455.
43.
James A. Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite (New York: The Free Press, 1991), 236.
44.
Paul A. Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith. Policy Change and Learning. An Advocacy Coalition Approach. (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993), 27.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Weaver, “The Changing World,” 574–575.
47.
Robert L. Hollings, Nonprofit Public Policy Research Organizations: A Sourcebook on Think Tanks in Government. New York: Garland Publishers, 1993.
48.
Lee Michael Katz, “American Think Tanks: Their Influence Is on the Rise,” Carnegie Reporter 5, no. 2 (Spring 2009).
49.
Montoya and Swanger, “Ideas for Policymakers,” 1–2.
50.
Haass, “Think Tanks and U.S. Foreign Policy”, 5. Stone concurs on a number of these points (civic education, broad output, conveners, marketing, and advocacy pursuits).
51.
Diane Stone. “Think Tank Transnationalization and Non-Profit Analysis, Advice and Advocacy,” Global Society 14, no. 2 (2000), 16.
52.
Diane Stone. “Think Tank Transnationalization”, 16.
53.
Ibid., 18.
54.
Ibid., 19.
55.
Thomas Medvetz. “Hybrid Intellectuals: Toward a Theory of Think Tanks and Public Policy Experts in the United States,” Cornell University 1 (2007): 35.
56.
Ibid., 9–10.
57.
Ibid.
58.
In their article “Ideas for Policymakers: Enhancing the Impact of Think Tanks,” Silvia Montoya and Rachel M. Swanger identify that think tanks have to strike a difficult balance between “building a close relationship with stakeholders for the purpose of enhancing the relevance and timeliness of research, and maintaining adequate independence to preserve the integrity (real and perceived) of the research” (Montoya and Swanger, 4).
59.
Iain Maclean, and Alistair MacMillan. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
60.
Rich, “U.S. Think Tanks,” 55.
61.
Ibid.
62.
Ibid.
63.
Stone, Capturing the Political Imagination, 23.
64.
Ibid., 13.
65.
Andrew Denham and Diane Stone, Think Tanks across Nations: A Comparative Approach (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998), 5.
66.
In Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics of Expertise, Rich concurs with this notion.
67.
Stone, “Think Tank Transnationalization,” 5.
68.
Ibid.
69.
Stone et al, “Bridging Research,” 27–28.
70.
Abelson, American Think Tanks, 125.
71.
Ibid., 49.
72.
Wiarda, Think Tanks, 31.
73.
John Chuckman, “The Real Clash of Civilizations,” Counter Punch, June 23, 2003, http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/06/23/the-real-clash-of-civilizations/.
74.
Ibid.
75.
Abelson, A Capitol Idea, 13–14.
76.
Singer echoes Abelson, American Think Tanks, in this notion.
77.
Stone, Capturing the Political Imagination, also notes this trend fifteen years earlier.
78.
Singer, “Washington’s Think Tanks,” 5.
79.
Stone, “Think Tank Transnationalization,” 7.
80.
Diane Stone, “Recycling Bins, Garbage Cans or Think Tanks? Three Myths Regarding Policy Analysis Institutes.” Public Administration 85, no. 2 (2007): 260.
81.
Denham and Stone, Think Tank Traditions, 2. Telgarsky and Ueno, too (Telgarsky and Ueno, Think Tanks in a Democratic Society), question whether the Anglo-American conception of the term “think tank” can be “transplanted” into other countries.
82.
K.F.F. Quigley, “Think Tanks in Newly Democratic Eastern Europe,” in Think Tanks in a Democratic Society: An Alternative Voice (Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 1995).
83.
Diane Stone, “Non-Governmental Policy Transfer: The Strategies of Independent Policy Institutes,” Governance (13): 45–70.
84.
McGann, “Think Tanks and the Transnationalization,” 13–14.
85.
McGann, “Think Tanks and the Transnationalization,” 16–17.
86.
See note 81.
87.
Dickson, Think Tanks, 28.
88.
James G. McGann, and Erik C. Johnson. Comparative Think Tanks, Politics and Public Policy. (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005), 1–2.
89.
David M. Ricci, The Transformation of American Politics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 176.
90.
Peter W. Singer, “Washington’s Think Tanks: Factories to Call Our Own,” Brookings Institution (2010), accessed December 3, 2014, http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2010/0813_think_tanks_singer.aspx.
91.
R. Kent Weaver, “The Changing World of Think Tanks,” Political Science and Politics 22 (1989), 567.
92.
Ibid.
93.
Ibid., 577.
94.
Ibid., 576–577.
95.
Robert K. Landers, “Think Tanks: The New Partisans,” Editorial Research Reports 1 (1986): 455.
96.
Gregg Easterbrook, “Ideas Move Nations,” Atlantic Monthly (1986): 66.
97.
Medvetz, “Think Tanks,” 9–10.
98.
Ibid.
99.
Medvetz, “Hybrid Intellectuals,” 35–36.
100.
Joseph Nye, “Global Power Shifts,” TED Talks, July 2010, http://www.ted.com/talks/joseph_nye_on_global_power_shifts?language=en.
101.
Think Tanks, Politics, and the Casualties in the War of Ideas. Acton.... https://acton.org/event/2017/06/28/think-tankspolitics-and-casualties-war-ideas.
102.
Denham and Stone, Think Tanks across Nations, 5.
103.
Ibid.
104.
Denham and Stone, Think Tanks across Nations, 5.
105.
Denham and Stone, Think Tank Traditions: Policy Analysis across Nations, 5.
106.
Ibid.
107.
Ibid.
108.
Ibid.
109.
Evert A. Lindquist, “Three Decades of Canadian Think Tanks: Evolving Institutions, Conditions and Strategies,” Think Tank Traditions: Policy Research and the Politics of Ideas, ed. Andrew Denham and Diane Stone (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2004).
110.
Katz, “American Think Tanks,” 2.
111.
Stone, “Think Tank Transnationalization,” 15.
112.
Katz, “American Think Tanks,” 17.
113.
Ronald Meinardus, “Think Tanks and Political Parties,” Friedrich Naumann Foundation Liberal Opinion, January 20, 2005, accessed December 4, 2014, http://www.fnf.org.ph/liberalopinion/think-tanks-and-political-parties.htm.
114.
Diane Stone and Mark Garnett, “Think Tanks, Policy Advice and Governance,” in Think Tanks across Nations: A Comparative Approach, eds. Diane Stone, Andrew Denham, and Mark Garnett (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1998), 2–5.
115.
The connection between the freedom of civil association and democracy was first identified in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.
116.
Richard Higgott and Diane Stone, “The Limits of Influence: Foreign Policy Think Tanks in Britain and the USA,” Review of International Studies 20, no. 1 (1994): 15–34.
117.
Zhao Kejin, “The Limits of Cooperation among BRICS Countries,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, http://carnegietsinghua.org/2014/12/01/limits-of-cooperation-among-brics-countries.
118.
Mahmood Ahmad and Raees Ahmad Mughal, “The Foreign Policy Think Tanks in China: Input, Access, and Opportunity,” Asian Affairs: An American Review 38, no. 3 (2011): 143–155.
119.
Ibid., 144.
120.
Ibid., 146.
121.
Ibid., 149.
122.
Ibid., 149–150.
123.
Ibid., 150.
124.
Ibid., 144.
125.
Bonnie S. Glaser and Phillip C. Saunders, “Chinese Civilian Foreign Policy Research Institutes: Evolving Roles and Increasing Influence,” The China Quarterly 171 (2002): 598.
126.
Ibid., 606.
127.
Ian Marsh, “The Development and Impact of Australia’s ‘Think Tanks’.” Australian Journal of Management 19, no. 2 (1994): 177–200.
128.
Ibid., 191.
129.
Ibid., 192.
130.
Ibid., 193.
131.
Frank Louis Kwaku Ohemeng, “Society and Policy Making in Developing Countries: Assessing the Impact of Think Tanks on Policy Outcomes in Ghana,” Journal of Asian and African Studies, June 13, 2014: 1–16.
132.
Ibid.
133.
Ladi, S. and Lazarou, E. (2012), Think-Tanks and Policy Transformation: The Case of Brazil, IPSA, Madrid, 8–12 July 2012. 3 http://paperroom.ipsa.org/papers/paper_13275.pdf.
134.
Ibid., 20.
135.
Ibid.
136.
Ibid.

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James G. McGann

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McGann, J.G. (2019). Think Tanks, Foreign Policy, and Emerging Powers. In: McGann, J.G. (eds) Think Tanks, Foreign Policy and the Emerging Powers. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60312-4_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60312-4_2
Published: 10 July 2018
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