Think Tanks

Think tanks originated in the United States in the early 20th century in response to a desire among both public and private citizens for more venues to discuss and document world affairs, public policy, and American society. Today think tanks are more accurately described as public policy research organizations, and their activities cut across a spectrum that includes academic analysis, issue advocacy, and even policy activism. The philosophy behind think tanks comes from the progressive belief that more and better information shared by government leaders will lead to enlightened policies benefiting the public interest. Some of the earliest American think tanks carry familiar names: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910), the Council on Foreign Relations (1921), the Brookings Institution (1916), and the American Enterprise Institute (1943) are among some of the better known. The vast majority of think tanks, however, are smaller and less well known. They exist to serve demands for knowledge, analysis, and evaluation at local, regional, and national levels.

A handful of think tanks serve only one client: the United States government. Created to conduct research and development during the Cold War, the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) support different federal agencies and over the years have housed highly influential thinkers. For example, during the Cold War, Rand Corporation scholar Albert Wohlstetter's analytical studies on nuclear strategy led to the “second-strike” and “Fail-Safe” concepts for deterring nuclear war.

With the right timing, a think tank product can also have tremendous influence on public attitudes. Another Rand scholar, Herman Kahn, believed that nuclear war could be won. At Rand, he studied the application of such analytic techniques as game theory and systems analysis to military theory. This school of thought clashed with other think tank outputs such as the “Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” a four page document credited with launching the American nuclear freeze movement, authored in 1980 by Randall Forsberg of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies.

A typical think tank product is a substantive report that comes with a synopsis of the content plus an interpretation of the content in the form of policy recommendations, or “talking points.” Some of these reports are complex, academically oriented books, others are monographs filled with charts and figures, and still others are written as mainstream hardback books offering policy advice. Some organizations have minimal packaging and publicity departments to get their message to the public and to policy makers. Other organizations devote considerable resources to the task.

Beginning in the 1980s and continuing after the end of the Cold War, policy research organizations grew to attain a global reach, numbering more than 4,000. Over [Page 840]half of all American think tanks that exist today were founded after 1980. Many are extensions of academic departments and are attached to universities. Others occupy office buildings in American cities and the environs of Washington, D.C. With the global communications revolution and the rise of an increasingly ubiquitous mass media, demand increased for more organizations that specialize in making data comprehensible, or “user-friendly.” The development of more democratic and participatory systems of government also contributed to this demand. The trend continues today as ever-increasing amounts of information create a parallel need for analysis and interpretation. Most think tanks aim to serve both government policy makers and the public. Others are more exclusive, serving as internal creative resources for private sector corporations or industries. Think tanks often cover a broad array of issues, from domestic housing to international security, for example. Others specialize in such knowledge niches as tax policy or religious freedom.

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