Reasons for the Recent Decline in Number of Think Tanks Established Worldwide

· Political and regulatory environment growing hostile to think tanks and NGOs in many countries;

· Decreasing funding for policy research by public and private donors;

· Public and private donors tendency toward short-term, project-specific funding instead of investing in ideas and institutions;

· Underdeveloped institutional capacity and the inability to adapt to change;

· Increased competition from advocacy organizations, for-profit consulting firms, law firms, and 24/7 electronic media.

When I helped organize the first international meeting of think tanks, one of the major debates at the meeting was the contention that the term “think tank” doesn’t travel well across borders and cultures. That is clearly no longer the case, as the term is now widely accepted around the globe to describe “public-policy research analysis and engagement organizations that generate policy-oriented research, analysis, and advice on domestic and international issues, which enable policymakers and the public to make informed decisions about public policy issues.

And increasingly, think tanks are a global phenomenon because they play a critical role for governments and civil societies around the world by acting as bridges between knowledge (academia) and power (politicians and policymakers).

Governments and individual policymakers, throughout the developed and developing world, face the common problem of bringing expert knowledge to bear in government decision-making. Policymakers need understandable, reliable, accessible, and useful information about the societies they govern. They also need to know how current policies are working, as well as to set out possible alternatives and their likely costs and consequences. This expanding need has fostered the growth of independent public policy research organization: the think tank community, as we know it.

Think tanks have increased in number, but also the scope and impact of their work have expanded dramatically as well. Still, the potential of think tanks to support and sustain democratic governments and civil societies around the world is far from exhausted. The challenge for the new millennium is to harness the vast reservoir of knowledge, information, and associational energy that exist in public policy research organizations so that it supports self-sustaining economic, social, and political progress in every region of the world for public good.

Part of the goal of this report is to raise some of the critical threats and opportunities that face the think tank community globally. These threats are best expressed by what I call the “four mores”:

· More Issues;

· More Actors;

· More Competition;

· More Conflict.

These threats create a set of challenges that confront all think tanks:

· Competitive challenges;

· Resource challenges;

· Technological challenges;

· Policy Challenges.

To effectively respond to the threats and opportunities posed by this new and challenging environment, think tank need to focus on the “four M’s”:

· Mission;

· Market;

· Manpower;

· Money.

Finally, in a global market place of ideas, think tanks need to develop national, regional, and global partnerships while creating new and innovative platforms to deliver their products and services to an ever-expanding audience of citizens, policymakers, and businesses around the world.